tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64544591861297503282018-11-16T08:43:08.657-08:00Grumpy Art HistorianCurmudgeonly criticism, mostly about art.Michael Savagenoreply@blogger.comBlogger304125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-31029409030847546022018-07-08T23:48:00.000-07:002018-07-08T23:48:04.819-07:00Contrasting Rubens portraits at London auctions<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for rubens clara serena" class="irc_mut" height="353" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAkGBxMTEhUTExMWFhUVGB0bGBgYGBcYHRgaGBgXGBoXGhgYHSggGholHRUWIjEhJSkrLi4uGh8zODMtNygtLisBCgoKDg0OGhAQGy0lHyUtLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLf/AABEIAQkAvgMBIgACEQEDEQH/xAAbAAADAQEBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAADBAUCBgEAB//EADkQAAEDAgMFBgYCAQQCAwAAAAEAAhEDIQQxQQUSUWFxgZGhsdHwBhMiMsHhQvFSFCNicoKiM8LS/8QAGQEAAwEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwQF/8QAIREAAgICAwEAAwEAAAAAAAAAAAECESExAxJBUSJhcTL/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AMUXFuZvFkw2qLui8ZxJX27cL6tSE6Edq8duzsSE8TixwPYAkxi4n/8AUeSbxNMRvbqm4hoB+2FcWqJaYfEbYAEeRSL8Y7MCI7F4yg25I6WWHVW3A/Ed6pJeIWRunUdrmU1S/wCXYJ9QpdB4PVVKABt4ptfQCU3SYsOvXqjkxlly9QvqVE5hsxlceSP8gwd4EcMvwpckh0LCvJgNNjfJNFoi89uqVfS0zRKZIAt1SckHUw58ZBba8jI+EJgAEfbfovmvGoVKQmjxj8p8Vp4ByXzi05dyLR3Si0FC3y0UOK2dV61xRYqM/Mtf31S9apEkJskcl5UYOCV0VRNqV4ue/wBUVmIKZqYdpBEdiWbR3YtZNNMVG24paNYckGq2R+0FjXRE+SdAN7+RJSOIxf1ROWq3WEmDZKPaAYGfvWVlgoHiMSRaw70o6teTPYfclB2kQMyRPASpYrOk3sOXvmtYcdoTlRTqYwjjfISiUQ46ZqODJme3hzVXB1yNenPrwTlGkJOyjRw0CSL53vZP0KNpt5JOk4lszl5TnyAPmi1MWGnddJkHLlyWTbei0kN0SQbI/wDqJsTJ4C5UfEYg2JMA5MEyepF+5K4nFvcQIFFoEzu3J4KasZYxGK3c2kdUo/aMEfZH/afJRq2Na0APYX3zl/1R/wATl2JajtcAFopB3UAEcVooPwltHWVMfugE7nYZ7bLTMZ/k1vItdPguRbiy0FxpjdmL7pmeea+w2Lpid9u7vXaQXSDwtmEukgtHYfPYeXX1Q6riy49ffVQMHjY+17Xjg63cRkeoTODxYcxzfte0mBx4SJ42lCw8iavRYo44HO3vRMtxDTqAucweOa+x+h3A6kcDqmHVi1wtMCXcgNefRauMVki2dM3JeEoWFqgjmjipwH5WeyzLTPNadTtcLBPBfCscil1+BYu+ne35S7mGZCdi/wCVprIsU26FRJqEZ5nqPVJ12xJPU/Vom31TGXXLuFlL2lWMRkBnlwPK/wDaSVspkrHVASL8YAOnfrKml3E29ETEOJ+o9nIez4pKqV2wjgxkxg4knpp+Eejjjm45Zdfcqa0o9OXFOUEEZHVbPqlzDGefTOB1QNo4oOOTrtLd2DM6R3omErbopU6Yl5je6HOecQO0cF1FHANZbdgm5d70zXA5U7o3oj7J2NUqS+qSNYFiORPYnH4BgJLW3bxuZ0uVfp1GZDl3JWtuzA/kfO6iWgRzL8BJ3jcjLqTb89yTOCcXXy5fnmutrYYE2OvqvXbNgXHXylZpyReDktp4Alh/4nXlp74JOpQLQ127vsgBw1AEieo/HWOtfTG8RGf5/ahYir8uoaUWzHHKw71rxybwRJURnbKcR83DukRduo5XsQl2YsfZWYWnMObYg8RPlkeS67Z+DDC17BG8YcOomenqt7e2I2o2Rw8eI8Vqubx6++kuHw5jD42KZpPG9Lt5r+BynpaCnNlY4lpBu7dMc28OcfhRg99FxYbiYI7j6J2g5oJI+5p3mA6tN46q5x+CTO02fUJJaYtBtkQRIN060Hiomxnu3C933P8A/UAxu9h3u9dBg7rOmlkbpgHDhmvQ4lM1KHDuQHM71XayaBCqQ6Mlp1a9jZfOaD1QGASQYtxn8IaTDRLrAi29/X9qZtWkYN887CwjqnKmIDb8Muii4+rvFxmxj34eCONOypNE57ZnklKxTb3D9e+nclaoldsTCRhqYoOMjK3uEvCq7IwLqjgG58eHu6JtJWwhbZZ+FQ01zl9tuV+HUldo/dIANj1HaL6KFgsNSw5+lpc/Im09BwCp4bHGo7dc109PyV5s5pvB0qIw/D6g9Y71jcdvTCtYLAh1t3tRquxiAdeCnq2HaiNSiL+/cLVbEgZ+xonzhDuwQVLxWDe4QM+enNGg2czV2jNbg1ufZf8AKTZ/u1TUMwuhwPwsf5ZOz59VTGyQwQ0AdP2tKpfihX9ItB7RbKATw0iTwGgTAxINgRplfT0WMRg4JNyOH5J1Qhus+oiOQ05rBqmWiL8SbO3nAgXd+BbyKi4qnEN1GXbp37y6wPDnl0TFhy4n3w6qJtiiDUEWM95Iv4Bb8c9RJa9LPw23fZU5ODh/5MEjwntV7AuixUL4bYWU7EfUfH2FfokGU7wTWRowRNlg056rLHxZeueCpAC9h1tCRxAAubTyBVE+CVxDQTkmmFHL4ht7G/l2+8lHxp0mw8zx7AVefXEutbP0UDaLRxk3JniYt5Lbi2TISiV78r3CPhWaaZp0boz9VrKdYJUSK+kZ4rrNgYZzWugfVAA6nO6jvLZmPfcur+HrU53d2ch2RJWXNyNxLhGmPYCgSQ3vK6TC4VoItHmp2yKMRyz996u7uSx4kipNlDDsEcE/8tIYd+qb+fZUxP8ARiqzkln0m3sLo1St0SdSrKZLR44AaKdiCmK7yptclW9Eon4yJUba7gG38LKrVN7pDH4cPaVjJWap0RsJjWjp3nt7lM2hi5dIFtOZ1PSJ70PaDywwwAAQJAzz7lNLyXcSr4+L0UpeHT/DlYginxv1IIHkus3gcpHJcbsGiDUDT/iWgnIkQY63Pcupoki3DMZ24zwWbf5D8CF60HzqvnU/69EI2srWSRnfhCeATcIbXSY4LGJMHMpVQzm302mZPZOsZW5qZVpEuk3v4JupXgn3e/4XlWoIgHPpwC1VonZLmI4zZMZm4PL2EHFMM29ibor3SDfL008Fo36JDFMNkb3d6ldFRruDQBA53gLk8HR3ngE7vO35XaYSi0MANwNTaZ9Suflxg0iM7ExZJ3SZ1K6ihUJC5TYTATUcMt6B0aYXS4fEhoyk8AjjQpsqUhGaI5/MqWdrWk03dlz3Bao7Zw7x9LiDqHCL8FciUPyhuCEa4zC8qVwBJU0/BmaolJVGEo7tsUWD6nDvSjNvUahIpNLuYBjviFQgGIwsqfXAaCFUr4oRcEdVzm0qxMlJjRy22zB3RHPj+lJogzN5V7F4SZd3qQ2uGk5jSyuDxQP6Xfh98uDSR9Mkc7R269kLraLw6D3++xfnmArkVIFpyHCRn3LuKD7cwB46Ln5I9ZWWnaHihVIIXrnTeEEtOaExNG6AAQsYBPFemnaZ98UnWrK6vJJz1WDB99fFK74801iBAtYZevNIM+7LVax0JjVSlvRFrX9+80KnShsHQ+J08k60CICC9vH3H9KO3hVDmx8K4EXEZ3GnWFeq0nPtIaBrrfhw1UfZlW8DLqMxdOY7aTaTJIlxOWU8p4Dis2nKWSrSR0ez6TWgNbEAInzAyZ8fXgonw9VeKxDsntkWgDKw7/BdNi9nscQ4zI5laRWCHsnYjaLaY3qm81u6TvEACG5/cQeHWRCxgsXRrjfY4OadYI5w5pu3jdMbX2a3ENaHOH0yLiQQYkEa5IuxNnNplrGnI/xbbdH8b2Dc+9U1jYkM4Rto4KVtqqSdwdq6bDUoc+MhkoNfDzWJ696loaZEp7La531CYvc2jiTwTeI25Sw+6x1UDencayjUIO7YwQDME5quMEBDm/ZqDq7iSomP+HKTq5rhzQ4mTMyDrESD4KlH6K/g43ajKrTDg63vp2qSMK4uMZJpuzWuqNNOd8W3uI5jKPHyVvEUNxl4nUqXsaOQxtMMF5jldczXwoDgYkuym3gur2nEgTzU/EMDniYG4JJ0G9p596E8jJdKiKdQakiZ/UrrcC8bo1kd/Vc/iKYLS6YII3eQFle2e2GAmHHUZclHI9DihyvYeSX+bGabABCWr0u46dM1CGzHzZ1sk60B1ro+Q9+5U7EzP9LVEMRr0rRJnhyU0NgzkqdZ8uJB4jySGJeLiPeaqDBo22vJK8+UYcZuJhLU6sEJyk6Yy6dU5KgWRrZIIAvmZ/BCkbcrO354T5+kKzhGkZZdfcKVtPDzvGfKyOOS7OxSWDovhja/zG7hMuZBnl7su4o15AK/EMJiTTdvNMEa/wBL9b+H8Xv02HWBKucerFF9kdDSw7XC9kzSpMYDui6Up1LIjqsBTdjcaDbPyf74qFm58aFW8E6GuMEcclz8uFRwA4klS3ke0XNnNlt8joi4jZtMgnwQdmVgWSEY1OaHJjUFQlRpCnJFlF2vjtJVTaNexXLYh1ycyk2FUTNo1N0F/vMBCe6ftEknh7uibWb9GWZt1zCzhCGkF8yWzOWUfpF0hVkLTp/RBAF44mQYtz5qjR/240/r2EOhuzI7ffava88TbyKz2UPCtcRccFis4BpN/XkhYRghKY6vE5xrPgFKQ2z52IaBDT680u+s2b3UyjWcDIyJk5dfZTdb6nGSAOsStqpEWI1TEgWSNRsnPNGxVWXT1Sp481cUAKo3K+qbw5yv4pd4sFvD5g5ifFVLQlssNeA0+qi4+vIInPn70TVfEWgA+anvYSO1RxRp2xy0Ildh8G7XIPy3Hp04LlKlMgwn9mYgU3tccgb+/eS6ORdomccM/WqOJlVaNHfaRMWseHNctgawc0OabKsdqim2TPYL+C5TZu0fVq9bCUnb7zWk57v28jGYXIY3aOKqPml9pP1WPcOxdqdp0nshzhfjz6periMOwgB7Zi4y7k/2SmMfDtJzaH1CCSTHAaBFr1uJUjaO32UxAMkkAAXJ6ALfzy5n1A9qTKUqF9oYmclLdco9UXWKhABKkRB27W+tgH8ZPhC2HTAm5A9+PgkHVQ+q5xyFltte5JC0lHCRKZU+YQTHEDy996aq1pbPG47lJw+I3hyB9YHRHOJlwDW9eRz7llRY0zFECDY87IFevvadiE+o1xkaTPQftCq1Bbjr77U+orMspxf37unKdQf4zbhKVp1SbERqt0qVvqfHRU9CJ1Wjx0HvzS1QQPVNGpLiZtn77kni6nPJVG7GxN1XmvHYg8UGJKK2jafZXQ0lsythqOIABB5fn1W/nCBE6qe8HVGpGdMknBbKUhiqd/dGXYmMOwRcdfCEBhJ4e9ei3SdGuqh6oZa2JjzRdu73+2eOY59LFdnhS10OmVw9JoeONojhcn8+K6H4XoPcHbpNsm9Let+Szu2N4L2JZTJlzBPvxUr5FH6iA2eJEnvVVjd6zgbaLbsNTygIkshGTSEtlta10hoE6wJTuOrDJDr1WUxAAlIVKs/U4wEtC2BeJuksbLhuiw1KLUrb1m5LbacBKwOVDQ0PHNImvfO6q7UoEPIGRv8AhTH4UAjVbRaZLQXDVToDxHh25J5lX6huTcXPHjZScOCH3B7PNEqVXRuAmDmeI4SlKFvBSY+7FCRumf4tHHiSiSCC4X07dQpuFdBsYP2g/wCI1cPeqPgq0w0SQJAHL0UuNaHY4zONF62sGfxnrKy6RMC3X8pOviDOQns/KjeEFGK7d2L558pm3/qVMxVckxl4JzaTpIgZGAeN7COzxUpwK6OOPrIkw9Azn0TpqADySeHygR1T4w1oJEx+kptXkcdCtWhKy2nCZNGNZA14c/0gVHazbxKE7Bo8aNZRmhpEExPVAoBzjut/CvYD4QxFQbxEDif2iVLbBA9nOaCG70umwFyv0H4UwbqTjvtguG9fg7I9bJP4V+F20gapAe4WEi0zmJuV0lTD7pDtXXJ8lhVuym8H20cDvSWmHcfULjtoVq1F/wDudkX8V3bXSEnjcM14hwVNEpnAVNr67pJ5r6lUfUu4wNAr+M+HW5tspdTAlhAlSygtGmEfcW6DBFlp9hKi2OiFtSiSTFjol8Psh1SmXBw3m5tv3pvH1JcYVfYtPd3nkRbv5R1VIGcR8vOJn3ZeV6bd0k55Ac+XKy6rF7Fa87wO67NLVNlPEfS13Etse4/tV2FRyQp8cz6+UKphKIEEAZWM3T9bZQOkcohAp4eLcPYhOU+yCqZvdJE+nqptVsa5Wz7hon6j4MZEc0lUaS7OffKFnxp2UwW06X1AzaDdTqVO/VNvhwgZj36JjD0hfI+Nlt26qiasXp0N0ZLZPZa54fvkiupzciB/a+wmEc87rW3dpwUdryx0J1nuNgLTYcT6q3sP4Oq1iHVSWNOmp9F1vw18KtpfXUAc/wAByC7PB4QNAc4dB+VopPwiTRI2J8M0MO2QwAAXJu49uiPi6wcIDYYPtAtJyTmOqbzZ0yHMpSnT+prealoSG6TAIpxln5nszWseyR0XlIfWDa7L9fcLb0JCsVY+AsvMrxzIMIdR4agAdZ0KFtAybK/XNko7BTmFDstE3C07LFZ+ipYhrWMUHEVckv0MRFAuqQL3XVNo7tNrOd/fYgfD+EAl7mzwB5zBT27NuCaBie5J98lh7eOqZe291tzQRf3+0+vbRN0I1KIIg3UrFbOGnvtCuvZaD2FLu1BzUVRSZyONbB3YI1jv19FPqUHZ2XUbSw7XAg9i57F0i2zieRmFUX8GxJtCHXtGfT2U+7DwLC/Hwy7UajhLmRZErUnXDRJziYifNZynbKSJ2NqwQxt/Vd38IbF+Wzffd7r9Aua+EdiF9U1Klww34E8F+jYWmT2raEFozlJjFJg3rdyYxbC4imDE/ceDde9YwzYfPD9rdN9n1DqYHQXP47ytWvDMBWbLwB9rB4n9LHyDv2MTI6GEXZ7SW7x/kSezRbrA/wAdLzzJAACFTQj0iL659Z062XlQr1jwRMWMdhWzS6n3bsKGhoWqAZpCpRJcAqT2IdKlByUNFIw/CotPDiD7lMbtlndhS8hog7RwZe6BYIVLYzCYyi7nZwrFfj/aFUcAMraD8u4lUog2LVSGtAAIGgOZPErzDUZdH+Qz0nTsmy02i58O5x0JTeHpQRbj+POQU1G2K6Qhj6cOESJB7DJt2Jdr0/tRphp1k+/BSaphzepHfCX+WG0Ntp2IOWh98VPx9Mi6q0SBScTcMMHjDrtjtkdqQrfV98ARl0m5PaiaQRZMrN3hAzjPQdqlVsNu2eZvb3qrOKr23aLQG/5kW7B/I2zQKGDbmTvOObnXnpwWSyWTnU91xg5e/VfOBed1s/UY6E6zwAEoNZxcIVfYFAF8x9vmc1ko5NG8F7ZmDFNrWMsArFJjjZv9pfDC8J1lExzmQfwuyKOdsI0fUTqs/dSaziSD2kA+SKH7wJ11HNK4Q/eNQZHbfzBQ8gjeFlu8HHMgduf4Tpsbe9PwUpiWb7d9ukbw4xCffafeQlNAxR7Q37bwBIjPNbpuaRIPXktl1z7sAVMAIAIsdVdiHsVYCTmYHTh3wsU2pbEOLwJMQQetkb/UCBlf1WTuylQyEGs/wQ/9T29AVhlaZG7bnnbhw8UksjbPRTMmb7vjr6Jd1Il19TlwmbJ5zIaZNzc80jSP1g81dJkhKZ3d8DQg9sgflMCkd6ehPTdI/wDqlniB1H5n8BOUqgIJ0sPL1VJEsR2vkRwd6rltpufvUw3Lflx5AC3UldBtGrmZzJ7I/ZPcpZpX3nZj7Qf4zr/28llN5Ljo++cWg7xzvu8IFpQnkvEuy0HHmtuw4H1P7G/koNSoXchwSUb2F1oxWysg0rhMNu0hDpWBGsoegRO+QBMjLLkrfw9SlsiJk21zUsPvrHu101hMSASzKbg5QfJc0W07N5K0dPRdDm9f0j1KjmvcJ1UWhii5v1GXNOfEHXwHeq76k7rjqIMcsj3eS6oyyYNB6WJAd1sRwQS7dqdbe/eqXr1Oo/pF3t9s6j8KrsVD2HEPAGRBB7BPlC1TrmHDUDLp+lim8lsg3i3UZDtkhA+ZvfUPuFjzQ38HQ7vSZ5EeEJdrJAHLzKNhHg5DUed/NekSRHuCJ81dkimIpfSYORv0Fvz4IrQEVtP6X9D78F4KeSznscdHwp9qHQpjf6eJRKttEChVgTxJv2JRXo2Exb7xoLd37SeH+6eCOTmUvg3XNvuNumU9B9XgrToQSs6Inh6INKvusPMyOmX48FjH1w9xjIWHr5IZZvZWbxOscPeqL9Chb6nnL+1t4DDe7+eQRHYgD6aeXHikqvefVRX0AdVpmXapdj7orzMJWs/dPNO0lkKCBpk3gQlKgLjawTlJpdBdYcEltLH06cbxDZyF/wALDs3/AA1qhSm7LPmnGO3oGXZZTqFN1xf2U0M4RGKKbKNF5a4EZK9gqu8x3/ET2DPwXPsfIHoqOxa8VQDrIPMQjUkS8ooMuvsNUh26RY9iVBII5GMoTFduTgPBaKWSKHxW3Xcl9WeN4OGTkGk7eEEeCxdv0nI5FaN0SNzu/U3tHL9J6QQ1zcifP9gqbQqXui1HlollxIJb25hP+CHgyA4cQfCT6IYyQXbQa7V2bptxMjwS4xhAyJUvI0NV8ika53WA8B4m8eK1XrVHtLflm+pIH4WauFe8y4homeMdqFoD3EVA1ud8h5eayHF300mnKJ5DTkPNfOo023Lt7tQK20nfa36RwGvanQBRh2svUMn/ABH5S2Jql2dhwCXfiIzQKmIkcVLnFDUWzZqxksFwAmUF5dFm9pKWbg3P+53YPU+ihyfiKSXp5UxU/bE8V7hKG842k5ychnqiU8JTZN949fwvMXtDc5CIA4yoae5DT8QLaONbSaSc9BqTyC50Yc1SXOz8Og5LdRrqz9dbq1g8GBIUtt5RWhgUgD1nj5INWlc5HgOV047L/wAihHNvb5JRY2eYdtskYP3XNcBEG6Jo3ovHfYU5O4glkp4poDpBs69zGf5mUbCOkbp81in/APGz/qELD/cjtZLQzTq7roTZhwg65G6m180WitFPBPU01paf34FNU6kdOeiEcuxZpapqbTE0GqCLtk8QCR2iF4HkiW1D0cT5rNP+PT1U4/cnKdCSKLg7MxPVBqydFinkvauSdgYbRPEQvKmDMTN0ehmF7tHRQ5FIQfTtds8s0u+s1ouRfIKlVy98lybsz/1Kmc+uiox7bKNTFCPfasCpwU7+Leh809QyPvVRHkbdDcUgdbECmd456Bc/isQary4kpnbn3j/r6oGzs29Qm3YJUWsFhA0ATnqm2SCd1wjr+CvKWRWaH3Hp+U/BXk//2Q==" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="253" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6454459186129750328" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>Sotheby's and Christie's each offered Rubens portraits at their auctions last week. The Christie's picture, <i>Clara Serena Rubens </i>(above) had been recently deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/old-master-paintings-n08952/lot.107.html">sold by Sotheby's</a> in 2013 as the work of a follower. Back then it made $626,500 against an estimate of $20k-$30k. It's been promoted hard as a Rubens, including spells on loan to the Rubenshuis and the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. A dealer described the estimate of £3m-£5m as low, and <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/do-not-allow-art-to-cleanse-crimes">predicted </a>that she would 'break records'. It didn't sell. <br /><br />I saw it at the Rubenshuis, exhibited alongside certain works by Rubens, and didn't think it stood up. It's a really endearing image and beautiful in parts, but the ambiguously sculptural treatment of the bust seems wrong for an intimate portrait of his daughter, and the application of paint seemed quite different from the other Rubens in the exhibition I saw. I'm not a Rubens specialist, and I know that some thought it was right even after seeing the Rubenshuis show. But a lot of Rubens specialists weren't quoted in the catalogue and haven't committed a view either way. Scholars are cautious of criticising new attributions, which are often uncertain rather than plainly wrong. But I am uneasy about museums showing controversial works with full attributions just before they're sold.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.17.html">Rubens </a>at Sotheby's, which I <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.com/2018/07/summer-auction-highlights.html">wrote about</a> in my preview post, was unquestioned and made £5,416,500 against an estimate of £3m-£4m. The market gave its verdict on the relative merits of the two portraits. The wonderful <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.11.html">portrait attributed to Düre</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">r</a> - my favourite in the Sotheby's sale - made £1,150,000, over a cautious £300k-£400k estimate. It's still good value for something so rare and so good. Last time I can recall a plausible Dürer offered at auction was the <i>Portrait of Michael Wohlgemut </i>from the Schäfer collection at Sotheby's in December 1992, where it was unsold against an estimate then of £600k-£800k.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<img alt="Image result for sotheby's liberale verona" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DhSMOjpXkAEwFBr.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="465" /></div>Sotheby's had a lot of pictures to my taste. I've always liked the mysterious <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.36.html">Jacobus Vrel</a>, and I was pleased to see one of his best pictures sell for £838k (estimated £300k-£400k). Cassone panels are often disappointing because they get so damaged, kicked and scrubbed over the centuries. The Liberale da Verona <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.40.html">Triumph of Chastity</a> </i>was one of the most beautiful and well-preserved to appear on the market, and deservedly made £1,330,000 (estimate £400k-£600k, detail above). I was more surprised to see <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.41.html">four South Netherlandish panels</a> from the early fifteenth century sell strongly for £2.65m (est £1m-£1.5m). They're enormously rare, but I thought not of the finest artistic quality. I preferred a really fine <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.14.html">Adoration of the Magi</a> </i>by a follower of Van der Goes, which made just £250k (est £200k-£300k).<br /><br />At Christie's an attractive Gerard David <i><a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/gerard-david-the-holy-family-6152935-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152935&amp;sid=288326ee-67c6-4f90-a9ce-d31d45302cc4">Holy Family</a> </i>made £4,846,250 (est £1.5m-£2.5m) and a major portrait by<a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/ludovico-carracci-portrait-of-carlo-alberto-rati-6152940-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152940&amp;sid=83d0672b-1c19-4daf-a4ff-80d4a0b8f389"> Ludovico Carracci</a> that emerged in 2005 made £5,071,250 (est £3.5m-£5m).<br /><br />In drawings, Turner's spectacular <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-master-british-works-on-paper-l18040/lot.209.html">Lake of Lucerne</a> </i>made £2,050,000 at Sotheby's. I thought it would do better. That's less than half the <i>Blue Rigi</i>, which is a steep discount for a less sexy title. Van Goyen drawings are common, but an especially <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-master-british-works-on-paper-l18040/lot.108.html">beautiful one sold for £68,750 </a>against a £20k-£30k estimate. There's a strong market for the very best drawings. The very best drawing sold last week, in my view, was the incredible early Fuseli of <i><a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/johann-heinrich-fussli-henry-fuseli-ra-the-6153062-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6153062&amp;sid=a8bb7e3f-665b-44fc-8aa9-8feb02d83900">The Faerie Queen</a> </i>that made £728,750 (est £150k-£250k), which is both a high price and a bargain.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for tuscan madonna christie's thirteenth century" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/bd/f7/6c/bdf76cd8dd2a19f5d8f72b68d9a9b316.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="294" /></div><br />There were a couple of high prices in the day sales. At Sotheby's an attractive and commercial <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.164.html">Netscher </a>made £274k against £60k-£80k estimate. At Christie's a thirteenth century Tuscan <i><a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/tuscan-school-13th-century-madonna-and-child-6152101-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6152101&amp;sid=d4296e81-bc19-46e1-9ef4-2fd041d96e84">Madonna and Child enthroned with </a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">angels</a> </i>(pictured) sold for £992,750 against a £30k-£50k estimate.<br /><br />Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-81268176116890418662018-07-04T23:44:00.002-07:002018-07-04T23:44:46.372-07:00Auction bargainsThe glitzy evening sales are a precious opportunity to see masterpieces that might not return to public view for a long time. There's usually a handful of optimistic attributions and bad-but-commercial pictures, too. The day sales are more of a mixed bag, but prices start really low and quality rises really quite high. I know that objectively £5k or £10k is a lot of money, but art has always been expensive, and collectors at every price point make sacrifices. Put off replacing the car (or cycle instead), choose cheaper holidays, plan to work a little longer, or just sell the kids. A lot of these pictures are within reach for many people.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for sotheby's swabian prophet" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L18/L18034/L18034-122_web.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="473" /></div>I like the early Netherlandish and early Germany pictures. Some of the studios turned out high quality pictures in some quantity. These <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.122.html">Old Testament prophets</a> from the Swabian school are great! Just £40k-£60k for the pair at Sotheby's. They have the same estimate on a beautiful <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.125.html"><i>Annunciation </i></a>from the circle of the Master of the Housebook, just a foot and a half high. Look for pictures from the 'Antwerp School' for bargains. There are a few conventional names given to identifiable groups of pictures, but a lot of pictures from Antwerp studios are unidetified but often high quality. This <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.137.html"><i>St Jerome </i></a>is particularly nice, with an excellent landscape, estimated at just £20k-£30k at Sotheby's. A little later is a large <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/cornelis-cornelisz-van-haarlem-the-martyrdom-of-6152069-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152069&amp;sid=78e922ce-38d7-4b17-b6a6-eb67c2dd6010"><i>Martyrdom of St Sebastian </i></a>(£25k-£35k at Christie's) by Cornelis van Haarlem, an artist of mixed quality, but rather under-rated in my view.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for christies circle mor" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_15495_0111_000(circle_of_anthonis_mor_van_dashorst_portrait_of_a_gentleman_bust-lengt).jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="352" /></div>Christie's says this is from the circle of Anthonis Mor. It's not the only attribution I disagree with, but wherever it's from this is a fine <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/circle-of-anthonis-mor-van-dashorst-portrait-6152037-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152037&amp;sid=78e922ce-38d7-4b17-b6a6-eb67c2dd6010">portrait </a>(£10k-£15k). It stands up well displayed just off the main gallery at Christie's, among the evening sale highlights. Another anonymous picture is this fine Roman school <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/roman-school-circa-1620-head-of-a-6152134-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152134&amp;sid=78e922ce-38d7-4b17-b6a6-eb67c2dd6010"><i>Head of a Man</i></a>, which will be worth much more than £7k-£10k if someone can identify the artist.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6454459186129750328" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><img alt="Image result for christies rubens lion" class="irc_mut" height="353" 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" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="495" /> </div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"></div>Rubens's prolific studio produced a lot of good pictures. There's a huge price change between 'Rubens' and 'studio', so a big incentive to over-attribute. On the other hand, pictures given to the studio can be cheap. Christie's has a version of the Washington <i><a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/follower-of-peter-paul-rubens-a-lions-6152060-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6152060&amp;sid=9f1758f5-f641-4f19-b686-3d75d970964a">Daniel in the Lions' Den</a> </i>without Daniel, by a follower of Rubens (£25k-£35k). And let's face it, it's the lions we really love! Big kitty cats; Internet, do your thing.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for christies giolfino" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://media.mutualart.com/Images/2018_06/10/12/121914622/c210233f-ea82-4e7f-a1ee-0b7135e63209_570.Jpeg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="431" /></div>Do have a look at the catalogues; they're big sales with lots of interesting pictures. At the lower end, this Nicolò Giolfino <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/nicolo-giolfino-saint-roch-in-a-landscape-6152113-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152113&amp;sid=78e922ce-38d7-4b17-b6a6-eb67c2dd6010"><i>St Roch </i></a>is quite charming at £10k-£15k at Christie's, and Sotheby's has a Jean-Baptiste-Marie Huët <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.198.html">portrait </a>for £7k-£10k. A beautiful Ceruti still life of <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.187.html">chestnuts </a>is estimated at £40k-£60k at Sotheby's. I like it more than a lot of evening sale still lifes. Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-50029784704212061852018-07-02T01:06:00.002-07:002018-07-02T01:06:49.853-07:00Summer auction highlights<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for dresden mars" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://storage.canalblog.com/20/93/119589/120500039.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="258" /></div></div>It's bronze-o-rama this month. Really great bronzes rarely come up for sale, but this month there are three in London. My favourite is by the greatest sculptor of small bronzes, Giambologna. The Dresden <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/treasures-l18303/lot.5.html"><i>Mars </i></a>(£3m-£5m, above) is a heart-stopping masterpiece. Exquisitely detailed and with beautiful patina, it's also a consummate summary of mannerism with its subtle and not-so-subtle distortions. The massive foreshortened hand is marvellously expressive with detailed veins and an exaggerated radius bone that looks almost like a ganglion cyst. The calf muscles are over-sized, and more distortions become evident when you study it. But the effect is artistic rather than awkward. <br /><br />Sculptures are hard to display. They need protection from curious hands, but they can't really be appreciated in vitrines. Sculptures are often seen as the poor relations of paintings, and don't get the same curatorial attention. That's why auction viewings are so worthwhile. The auctioneers do a much better job of showing their wares, and you can really appreciate the quality of this masterpiece. It's a logical acquisition for the Getty, which has developed a choice collection of sculptures. I hope they get it, because they display their collection so well.<br /><br />Christie's also leads with bronzes. There's a great group of <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sculptures-statues-figures/a-bronze-group-of-hercules-overcoming-achelous-6153917-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6153917&amp;sid=f5c10043-5743-4b58-839f-fa3b916400f8"><i>Hercules overcoming Achelous</i> </a>by Tacca, an artist in Giambologna's studio. A gilt version of this is in the Wallace Collection, and comparing the two really emphasises the quality of the Christie's bronze. Estimate is 'on request', circa £5m. They also have a magnificent rediscovered masterpiece by Giradon, a large bronze of <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sculptures-statues-figures/a-bronze-group-of-louis-xiv-on-6153936-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6153936&amp;sid=9c17ac40-74a9-438c-a0c0-a4a47ede755d">Louis XIV on Horseback</a> (£7m-£10m).<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6454459186129750328" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><img alt="Image result for durer man green background sotheby's" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L18/L18033/324LN17OMP_7M9F7.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="292" /></div>The picture that grabbed my attention was this outstanding <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.11.html"><i>Portrait of a Man against a green background</i></a>, plausibly attributed to Dürer. I don't know if it's by him or one of his close followers like Schongauer, but whoever it's by, it is a masterpiece. Condition is clearly compromised; the background looks horrible. It might have been overpainted and then cleaned. But the face itself is well-preserved and fabulous quality. This kind of picture is rare outside Germany and the estimate of £300k-£400k is modest, reflecting its small size and the diminished impact from damage to the background. The excellent catalogue entry gives more background on disputes over its attribution, which is welcome. Continuing with the northern Renaissance, Sotheby's also has a rare picture by one of my favourite artists, Hans Baldung. <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.10.html">The Holy Family with Five Angels</a> </i>(£2.5m-£3.5m) is rather worn in the key parts, but other elements are still finely preserved. And they almost never appear for sale. Hugo van der Goes is another rare and prized master. The <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.14.html">Adoration of the Magi</a> </i>at Sotheby's is only by a follower, but I like it a lot. And over 2m wide, it's unusually large and is good value at the estimate of £200k-£300k. <br /><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<img alt="Image result for rubens venetian man sotheby's" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/sothebys-pages/blogs/ModernImpressions/2018/2/rubens-announcement-1.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="290" /></div>Speaking of attribution disputes, Rubens was enormously prolific and pictures by him and his studio often appear at auction and there's sometimes a fine line between the master and his school. The best this time is a fine <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.17.html">Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman</a> </i>at Sotheby's (£3m-£4m), which looks even better in the flesh, with an ambiguous sense of swagger and vulnerability. Christie's has a newly-attributed <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/peter-paul-rubens-portrait-of-clara-serena-6152911-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6152911&amp;sid=23642c9d-b4da-4395-8f6a-522cb9c0d93c">portrait </a>with a slightly higher estimate (£3m-£5m), which I don't love. Christie's also has a fine large studio version of a lion's den, derived from the Washington <i>Daniel in the Lion's Den, </i>without the lions (£25k-£35k). <br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for christies triburtine" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_14772_0032_000(the_master_of_the_tiburtine_sibyl_the_virgin_and_child_in_a_walled_gar).jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="231" /></div>At Christie's there's a fine large Zanobi Strozzi <i>Last Judgment </i>which represents Fra Angelico's beautiful style (£2-£4m) and a superb early Spanish masterpiece by Miguel Ximénez, also of the <i>Last Judgment </i>(£600k-£800k). My favourite is a small <a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/the-master-of-the-tiburtine-sibyl-the-6152936-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6152936&amp;sid=23642c9d-b4da-4395-8f6a-522cb9c0d93c"><i>Virgin and Child in a Walled Garden </i></a>by the Master of the Triburtine Sibyl (£400k-£600k, above).<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6454459186129750328" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><img alt="Image result for A Wide Village Street in summer with carts, villagers and gentlefolk sotheby's" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L18/L18033/012L18033_9S8JX.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="499" /></div>A tiny Jan Brueghel the elder, <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.51.html">A Wide Village Street in summer with carts, villagers and gentlefolk</a> </i>(the title says it all) reminds me that he's a really great artist (£2.5m-£3.5m, Sotheby's). Not all his pictures rise to this level, and weaker ones appear at auction quite often. It's a beautiful and easily appreciated picture, but it's also a sophisticated image. Perspective is cleverly distorted; compare the trees on the left and the right. It's a trick used by Rubens, but on a tiny scale. When you see lots of pictures of this type you come to appreciate how hard it is to integrate those seemingly-random figures into a harmonious whole. It's a really great picture.<br /><br /><br />Sotheby's has a sleeper in reverse. This <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-day-l18034/lot.114.html">Ecce Homo</a> </i>is described as Venetian School, early sixteenth century, with an estimate of £30k-£50k. The catalogue note doesn't mention that it was previously <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2009/important-old-master-paintings-including-european-works-of-art-n08516/lot.39.html">offered </a>in New York in 2009 with full attribution to Lorenzo Lotto, endorsed by Keith Christiansen of the Met, with estimate of $400k-$600k. It's still a fine, unusual picture. I wonder if it would have been better marketed without the initial Lotto attribution, encouraging the trade to bid it up as a sleeper.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_15774_0100_000(johann_heinrich_fussli_henry_fuseli_ra_the_faerie_queene_appears_to_pr).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for fuseli christie's arthur" border="0" class="irc_mi" height="353" src="https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_15774_0100_000(johann_heinrich_fussli_henry_fuseli_ra_the_faerie_queene_appears_to_pr).jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="470" /></a></div>There's a dearth of great drawings at this week's sales, but each auction house has a few spectacular things. There's an overwhelming early Fuseli at Christie's, <i><a href="https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/johann-heinrich-fussli-henry-fuseli-ra-the-6153062-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6153062&amp;sid=bc6c7720-c346-4546-9d1c-35d6099a0c58">The Faerie Queen appears to Prince Arthur</a> </i>(£150k-£250k, above). The most fascinating is a twenty-foot <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/slideshows/2018/city-scenes-a-london-panorama.html">panorama </a>of London just after the Napoleonic Wars, by Pierre Prévost (£200k-£300k at Sotheby's).<br /><br />These are the big-money highlights, though not so big compared to contemporary art. I'll write a separate post tomorrow about the day sales and antiquities sales, where there are some really good pictures with really modest estimates. Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-13358667056716475712017-12-03T12:56:00.000-08:002017-12-03T12:56:17.537-08:00Christmas shopping: old masters at Sotheby's and Christie's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2-vtiNMof30/WiRXWxsWDnI/AAAAAAAAcuc/wbfTKs_o_bwSg2mhfIDCaLSDCsupA_fEwCLcBGAs/s1600/Christmas-Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2-vtiNMof30/WiRXWxsWDnI/AAAAAAAAcuc/wbfTKs_o_bwSg2mhfIDCaLSDCsupA_fEwCLcBGAs/s320/Christmas-Tree.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I hear there were some expensive things at recent contemporary sales, but I don't pay much attention to such vulgarities. The real action is at the Old Master auctions. They were queuing around the block last month at Christie's to see something from the contemporary sale, but few people visit the free, public views for the old master auctions.<br /><br />I've always wanted to see a version of Titian's <i>St Margaret </i>that's in a lot of the Titian catalogues, listed as in the Kisters Collection, Kreuzlingen. Kisters pictures have been coming onto the market over the past few years, and the one I'd wanted to see is on preview at Sotheby's this week, ahead of its sale in New York in January. Alas, I was disappointed. There are flashes of brilliance, but it's got nothing on the Prado version. Rightly attributed to 'Titian and studio', the estimate of $2-3m tells you how much Titian is in it. Very rich people can bid anything to the sky if the both want it, and this might just attract the attention of gazillionaires. But $3m or so is a prudent estimate and a fair price for a big and striking picture with a bit of Titian in it.<br /><br />Another Kisters picture is much more exciting: a Velazquez I didn't know at all! It's a collaboration with Pietro Martire Neri, but the face looks all Velazquez. Estimate is $3-4m, which seems cheap for just the face. You get the rest gratis. There's also a gorgeous double portrait attributed to Bartholomäus Zeitblom (surely too good for school, and who else?), and a <i>Virgin and Child with St Anne </i>by Holbein the Elder coming up in New York. Wowsers!<br /><br />Winter 2017 is the Northern Renaissance season, largely thanks to the Kreuzlingen collection. Other than Cranach, these guys don't come to market often enough to estimate reliably. They're not especially fashionable, and for reasons I can't fathom museums don't generally buy them. In the past few decades the Getty has bought a few, the National Gallery in Washington has bought a wonderful <i>Calvary </i>by the wonderfully-named 'Master of the Death of St Nicholas of Münster' and UK museums have bought ... nichts. I shudder to think of what they could have had for the cost of all those British portraits.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8_zi8Hqx4nw/WiQ_zfvJwuI/AAAAAAAActw/Q1Z23yWOiv4-nhW7o4Jweq562YRPJF9ZwCLcBGAs/s1600/001L17036_66BGX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1313" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8_zi8Hqx4nw/WiQ_zfvJwuI/AAAAAAAActw/Q1Z23yWOiv4-nhW7o4Jweq562YRPJF9ZwCLcBGAs/s320/001L17036_66BGX.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>This <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-l17036/lot.1.html">Betrayal of Christ</a> </i>is by an unknown master from the Lower Rhine, c. 1510-15. It's an exceptional and beautiful picture that is worthy of the National Gallery, estimated at £200k-£300k at Sotheby's. Lack of comparisons makes estimating it difficult, and good Northern pictures have tended to sell strongly recently. But for 'relative value' in the old master world, this is my pick. Tremendous quality, with such characterful figures.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oVSRwRMj82A/WiRKtQ1zPtI/AAAAAAAAcuA/oGUQUsu5kQgpL-jZKmHiWMrTwvx2XuS9QCLcBGAs/s1600/2017_CKS_13674_0233_000%2528attributed_to_willem_van_der_vliet_a_scholar_in_his_study_-_an_allegor%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="582" height="219" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oVSRwRMj82A/WiRKtQ1zPtI/AAAAAAAAcuA/oGUQUsu5kQgpL-jZKmHiWMrTwvx2XuS9QCLcBGAs/s320/2017_CKS_13674_0233_000%2528attributed_to_willem_van_der_vliet_a_scholar_in_his_study_-_an_allegor%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Another potential bargain is a panel that might be by <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/attributed-to-willem-van-der-vliet-delft-6117665-details.aspx">Van der Vliet </a>at Christie's, which needs attention. I don't know the artist well enough to judge, but the quality looks high. A much larger version sold for a lot of money a few years ago. Rohan McCulloch pointed out on Twitter that this one made £5k at a regional auction not long ago, against a low estimate. It's interesting that the buyer flipped it to a major auction house without restoring it. That might mean that the buyer couldn't get an expert endorsement (seducing experts is a crucial skill in the art market). I think it's more likely that the buyer thought it the best way to maximise risk-adjusted return. Dealers are keen to buy 'sleepers', because it makes them look smart and the re-sale price won't be anchored by the auction price. The £12k-18k estimate is way too low if it's right. But cleaning it is a cost and a risk; it might not be as good as it seems, and it might not be accepted. Even if it is, there's a risk that the right buyers aren't there on the day, and trade buyers won't pay full price for a fully-authenticated work. If I were a cynic, I'd be tempted to under-attribute and tip off potential buyers as a deliberate marketing strategy.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rvsN8gS2FFI/WiRMkTGY2_I/AAAAAAAAcuM/b90dq2fX_bISYaP15b_2SIB7Lmzxpl3_ACLcBGAs/s1600/060L17036_9MQQF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1148" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rvsN8gS2FFI/WiRMkTGY2_I/AAAAAAAAcuM/b90dq2fX_bISYaP15b_2SIB7Lmzxpl3_ACLcBGAs/s320/060L17036_9MQQF.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><br />Speaking of cynical marketing strategy, I wonder if this picture would sell better as three or four fragments. The <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-l17036/lot.14.html">catalogue entry</a> says it's a clever exercise in distorted perspective, but I don't think the composition works. In real life it looks much better than the photo. I'm entranced by the details, like a camp proto-mannerist take on Andrea Mantegna. It's by the Master of the Figdor St Eustache, £300k-£400k at Sotheby's.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z_LDh8ISNTk/WiRemYXcQ-I/AAAAAAAAcu4/nhqExU1KQww7N6Z8LWAKRTYe1-ho7jHLACLcBGAs/s1600/2017_CKS_13673_0012_000%2528master_of_the_dinkelsbuhl_altar_the_massacre_of_the_innocents%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="445" height="287" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z_LDh8ISNTk/WiRemYXcQ-I/AAAAAAAAcu4/nhqExU1KQww7N6Z8LWAKRTYe1-ho7jHLACLcBGAs/s320/2017_CKS_13673_0012_000%2528master_of_the_dinkelsbuhl_altar_the_massacre_of_the_innocents%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>My favourite Christie's picture is early German, too. This <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/master-of-the-dinkelsbuhl-altar-the-massacre-6117509-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6117509&amp;sid=f610ab4a-dd56-43bf-8493-51129b50fdb9">Massacre of the Innocents</a> </i>is by the Master of the Dinkensbühl Altarpiece, another wonderful moniker (beaten only by the <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/master-of-the-kitten-active-antwerp-c-6117625-details.aspx">Master of the Kitten</a>). Wonderfully theatrical characterisation of calculated thuggery overseen by a sociopathically impassive king, wicked dog, and distraught mothers. Estimate is just £400-£600k, which is surely within the reach of many museums. Christie's also has an exciting rediscovery: a rare picture by the Prague mannerist Bartholomäus Spranger, <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/bartholomaus-spranger-mercury-carrying-psyche-to-moun-6117510-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6117510&amp;sid=f610ab4a-dd56-43bf-8493-51129b50fdb9"><i>Mercury carrying Psyche to Mount Olympus</i></a> (£400k-£600k). Tragically it's rather abraded, like so many of his pictures that were presumably looted during the Thirty Years' War. It's still a rare and important picture that would be a fine acquisition by a major museum like the Met or the National Gallery in Washington, representing a school of art that bloomed brightly but briefly.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pptKP-DqUpM/WiRcwidrBbI/AAAAAAAAcus/DAhhQ1C_YrolX40iuYmqPKo0k5mfyqNUwCLcBGAs/s1600/066L17036_9KXQX.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="1600" height="238" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pptKP-DqUpM/WiRcwidrBbI/AAAAAAAAcus/DAhhQ1C_YrolX40iuYmqPKo0k5mfyqNUwCLcBGAs/s320/066L17036_9KXQX.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />As ever, there are eye-watering gems in the sub-£100k range, which barely buys a snotty handkerchief by the trendy contemporaries. Adriaen van Stalbemt will never be a household name, but this picture of <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-l17036/lot.37.html">The building of the Tabernacle with the Israelites sewing the curtains</a> </i>was good enough to be included as an Elsheimer in an old catalogue raisonné. It had been downgraded by 1977, when it sold for about £65k in inflation-adjusted terms. In 1977 inflation was nearly 16%, income tax was 83% above £20k and globalisation hadn't begun. Today it's estimated at £60k-£80k.<br /><br />I'm not a great admirer of Victorian pictures, but this <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-l17036/lot.48.html">Landseer sketch</a> is gorgeous, at £50k-£70k. I wish I knew more about sculpture. There seems to be a gap in the mid-market, with wealthy collectors paying millions for the very best, but bargains in the low-five-figure range. Sotheby's is previewing a tremendous collection of drawings including a Fra Bartolommeo landscape from the album sold in the 1950s and a couple of Watteaus. They're being sold in New York in January, and I'll say more about them then. In the meantime, I'm off to buy some lottery tickets.<br /><br />Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-8300628643758444172017-11-28T00:01:00.001-08:002017-11-28T00:01:30.737-08:00How not to clean pictures: the risk of gels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3rpNYdI2ZLc/Whqs4Yet_lI/AAAAAAAActI/tUFNuhjg0ukNOUNQirZcdeJefDN0aOKQACLcBGAs/s1600/1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1125" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3rpNYdI2ZLc/Whqs4Yet_lI/AAAAAAAActI/tUFNuhjg0ukNOUNQirZcdeJefDN0aOKQACLcBGAs/s320/1.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>An art dealer has taken down the video nasty of this picture being scrubbed 'clean' with a harsh brush while gel drips across the cleaned area. You can still see it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BqNbGTU0fQ">here </a>as of today. The American Institute for Conservation issued a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aiconservation/posts/10155976136808680">critical statement</a> and conservators were furious. I don't know who was cleaning the picture, but a conservator on social media calls him 'Scrubby Jelly Pants'. The vigorous scraping with a harsh brush is horrifying, and obviously risks damage. We'll never know how much harm was done; working that quickly makes assessment impossible. In the image above the uncleaned eyebrow looks clearer than the cleaned one, despite the varnish. Of course it's possible that it's an effect of light or they were touched up by a later restorer, but the most likely explanation is damage to the original paint. But although the risk of mechanical abrasion is obvious, my concern here is with the relatively new use of gels in conservation.<br /><br />Gels allow better control of solvents, restricting penetration. Conservators worry that residues could continue to act on painting long after the restoration, but extensive research suggests that the risk is low. My concern is slightly different: it's that new techniques encourage over-confidence. The defence of Scrubby Jelly Pants has been to assert that gels can be tailored to remove only varnish. Bullish conservators have always claimed only to remove varnish; no one wants to say they're removing original paint. But it's just not true. There's always a risk of removing original paint, particularly when it's applied as glazes that might be made of pigment suspended in varnish. Gels are not magic, and cleaning pictures is not an exact science.<br /><br />Psychologists speculate that we have a 'risk budget', so we respond to new safety measures by taking more risk. Make us wear seatbelts, and we'll drive faster. The other risk is that new techniques are over-sold. There's a mountain of research on the benefits and uses of gels in conservation, but none of it says you can mix a Magic Gel that can be safely slavered over a picture and scrubbed away without risk. One of the main benefits of gels is the controlled application of solvent; in this video it is so thin it runs down the surface. If it were truly the case that the solvent can only dissolve varnish, and not affect underlying paint, it would not be necessary to apply it in a controlled way. The whole point of gels is to mitigate that risk. <br /><br />The Hippocratic Oath - "first, do no harm" - is not appropriate in conservation. It would mean doing nothing. Old pictures, unlike people, do not heal or regenerate. Over time we can only ever have less of the original artwork. The challenge is to minimise the damage and weigh it against the benefits. Conservation is essential and desirable; a great masterpiece hidden behind dirt and varnish can't be enjoyed by anyone. But the idea of doing irreversible damage to irreplaceable art is horrifying, so the temptation is to deny the trade-off. I recently heard the leader of a major conservation project assert that there was 'no risk' involved. That either misunderstands risk, or mistrusts her audience to understand the trade-off.<br /><br />Conservation has become highly professionalised and sophisticated. Good conservators use artistic knowledge and skill in the application of advanced scientific techniques that are extensively tested and debated. But their work is not widely appreciated outside the field. There ought to be a better quality debate about the costs and benefits of conservation projects, rather than spin about 'zero risk, all benefit'. The failure to have that debate is part of what creates the space for videos like this to go viral, and for bad conservation techniques to thrive. <br /><br /><br />Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-40929742083322593952017-08-21T23:44:00.001-07:002017-08-21T23:44:41.035-07:00Museums are not the answer for Confederate monuments<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--GXA8GfGB4E/WZvI4R9TrkI/AAAAAAAAcg8/slygCsOIdpkOckFWDEKfhCDf8wZrSKg_wCLcBGAs/s1600/destroying-confederate-statues-whats-end-point-washington-monument.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="934" data-original-width="1600" height="186" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--GXA8GfGB4E/WZvI4R9TrkI/AAAAAAAAcg8/slygCsOIdpkOckFWDEKfhCDf8wZrSKg_wCLcBGAs/s320/destroying-confederate-statues-whats-end-point-washington-monument.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Confederate monuments celebrate a failed war to defend slavery. Most were erected long after the Civil War as a deliberate assertion of white supremacy, alongside Jim Crow laws and a resurgent Ku Klux Klan. Other historical figures have flaws against the standards of our times, but statues of Washington and Jefferson celebrate their enlightened nation-building, not their slave ownership. I understand why so many think the statues must go. I'm still not persuaded. People really are worried about a slippery slope that will carry away all historic statues. They're not racists, and they're not fools. Radicals really are<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-columbus-monument-20170821-story.html"> targeting Columbus</a> now.<br /><br />But this debate isn't really about the merits of Confederate monuments, and I don't think the statue smashers' primary concern is racism. In <a href="http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/misc/usapolls/us170814_PBS/NPR_PBS%20NewsHour_Marist%20Poll_National%20Nature%20of%20the%20Sample%20and%20Tables_August%2017,%202017.pdf#page=3">a recent poll</a> a plurality of African Americans want the statues to remain. That's especially awkward for protesters who believe we should defer to minority experience, so they've mostly ignored it. The inflamed passions are really a manifestation of the culture wars. The most angry voices and most sanctimonious arguments are from the people who most strongly identify with one or other tribe in the culture wars. They're animated by hatred for the other side in the here and now, not racism. It's telling that the debate over symbols has been so much more gripping and more inspiring than policy debates about issues like gerrymandering or civil forfeiture or policing that have much more real-world impact here and now.<br /><br />Any solution that doesn't recognise that will fail. The task isn't deciding what to do with statues, it's working out how to pacify culture warriors. And that's why I think some of the 'middle ground' solutions are the worst of all worlds.<br /><br />Putting the statues in museums assumes that museums will give the 'right' interpretation, so that the oiks who won't 'get it' in the public square can be made to understand. It co-opts museums for a particular side in the culture war. Sorting institutions into 'ours' and 'theirs' is a catastrophic strategy. Museums already tend to lean liberal. Many were founded as patriotic projects, but today they're more likely to indulge the cringing political correctness of <a href="http://beautifultrouble.org/case/mining-the-museum/">Fred Wilson</a>. Putting the sculptures in museums won't calm the passions. It will shift the focus to museums, further politicising them and alienating a large section of the public. <br /><br />Adding new statues of heroes that today's critics approve is also a problem. They are bound to be a focus of bitter debate when the symbolism is raised to such importance. Maybe they could raise statues of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass">Frederick Douglass</a> holding a rifle, to show his support for gun rights? And it feels condescending to require a statue of a black hero directly opposite a Confederate criminal to provide 'balance'. A non-trivial problem is that a lot of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/02/the-spectator-declares-war-on-public-art/">public sculpture is quite awful</a>, and bad monuments have proliferated in the UK and sullied our towns and cities.<br /><br />I don't have any better ideas. I think it's tragic that iconoclasm has become a radical strategy, and also tragic that so many conservatives struggle to concede the awfulness of the Confederacy. But anything that reinforces destructive tribal loyalties in the culture wars will make things worse.<br />Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-11159751711226730142017-07-25T09:01:00.000-07:002017-07-25T09:01:01.503-07:00It's all about context: assessing the old master market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-utA6824OGAA/WXdqAZTfh7I/AAAAAAAAcgI/E6aPWbKXOAI156oRbeAPSkR00e_9IOD6gCLcBGAs/s1600/portrait-of-elisabet-court-fool-of-anne-of-hungary-jan-sanders-van-hemessen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="729" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-utA6824OGAA/WXdqAZTfh7I/AAAAAAAAcgI/E6aPWbKXOAI156oRbeAPSkR00e_9IOD6gCLcBGAs/s320/portrait-of-elisabet-court-fool-of-anne-of-hungary-jan-sanders-van-hemessen.jpg" width="259" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The old master auctions that I <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/summer-auctions-old-master-week-in.html">wrote </a>about recently did ... OK. Sold percentage was high, but the major <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.21.html">Turner </a>that I didn't care for just squeaked by at £18.5m. Some wonderful Northern pictures did deservedly well, a <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.5.html">portrait of Anne of Hungary's court fool</a> (above) that they gave to Jan Sanders van Hemessen making £2.2m against an upper estimate of £600k. A marvellous <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.32.html">Murillo </a>made £2.7m, a little less than it made in 2005, adjusted for inflation. Conventional wisdom is that the market doesn't like 'stale' pictures, but twelve years is enough of a gap for a new generation of collectors to come through. And whilst novelty doubtless has some inherent value, there are other reasons for recent returns to do poorly at auction. The person willing to bid highest last time has dropped out - because they're selling it. The last auction established an anchor price, so it's easier to offer around the market than something with uncertain value. Auction might be the last resort. And they might be selling because it wasn't as good as they hoped, after cleaning and research. Finally the market is inherently volatile. There just aren't that many people chasing after each lot, and indeed some pictures returning to auction do very well indeed, from <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/govaert-flinck-cleves-1615-1660-amsterdam-an-5520519-details.aspx">this </a>to <a href="http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6068927">this</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Art market reports tend to read to much into each auction. It's a small sample, and it's mostly noise rather than signal. The July sales were solid, but not spectacular, so people tended to read into them what they wanted. Some old master dealers are too keen on talking up their market. Short term fluctuations are market volatility are literally their living, but sometimes being too close to the action means missing the context. Just because some dealers might be making a killing doesn't mean the market is in splendid good health. So I find myself again in disagreement with <a href="http://arthistorynews.com/">Art History News</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Supply of old masters fluctuates a bit, but not by as much as you might think. Great things do still come to market, and there’s a fairly steady stream of material. But they’re not making any more, so it is a finite market. The key change is demand. Art and antiques are bought by the affluent and the rich. And their ranks have been multiplying. There’s been a massive growth of global wealth, and a particularly striking growth in the super-rich. The potential market has been growing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If a population increases and grows richer, a car manufacturer with static sales shouldn’t get too excited. There are more potential customers, but they’re not buying cars. If it turns out that all the <i>other </i>manufacturers are selling more and more cars, as you’d expect in a growing market, our manufacturer ought to get a bit worried. That's the situation in the old masters market; other sectors in the art market are booming. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bendor Grosvenor <a href="http://arthistorynews.com/articles/4736_The_Old_Master_market_is_not_dead_ctd">references </a>a lightweight <a href="http://tbamf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The-British-Art-Market-2017.pdf">report </a>by Arts Economics. It’s hard to assess the report because there are so few references. The lack of caveats (uncertainty about size of market given different definitions and different sales channels) makes it look more like a marketing brochure than serious research. But it’s still hard to read as an endorsement of the old master market. Old masters are ‘best performing’ in the UK market only in the context of relative increase (of 16%). But that’s against a decline of 50% the year before ($438m to $219m). Of course that’s partly driven by decisions about where to sell, but it shows the danger of cherry-picking data. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The report confuses regions and hubs, and is padded out with unsubstantiated claims about the “knowledge-intensive and gender-balanced” jobs that are provided (what <i>is </i>a ‘gender-balanced’ job?). But it does show that the old master market is almost the smallest segment of the fine art market: 45% post-war and contemporary, 30% modern, 12% impressionist and post-impressionist and just 13% old master. So the market post-war and contemporary – just a few generations – is nearly as large as the seven previous centuries. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f0asg8raWEQ/WXdoXz6Mf8I/AAAAAAAAcgA/rVRN_mzzImQAKpAz4afYfdQvnpeV9dMYgCLcBGAs/s1600/22cabeacd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="552" height="241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f0asg8raWEQ/WXdoXz6Mf8I/AAAAAAAAcgA/rVRN_mzzImQAKpAz4afYfdQvnpeV9dMYgCLcBGAs/s320/22cabeacd.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Billionaires' net worth has increased roughly fivefold since 1995. Globalisation has created a vast new upper middle class in developing countries who are able to afford works of art. The boom in contemporary art isn't surprising. The remarkable thing is that so few rich people are spending their wealth on old masters. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s not a slight on old masters, or on the people who market them for a living, to say that the market is weak. I see it more as an indictment of the taste of the rich, but we shouldn’t take rich people’s taste too seriously. If you have even a little spare money you can buy pictures that really ought to be out of your league. Enjoy it while it lasts. </span>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-35220457729341592732017-07-03T09:53:00.003-07:002017-07-03T09:53:47.829-07:00Summer auctions: Old Master Week in LondonAuction viewings are under-rated. Collectors and dealers go, but the interested public neglects these rare chances to see things that might not be on public display again for a generation. It's not just the museum-quality masterpieces that are worth seeing. Seeing lots of mundane pictures helps develop a feel for relative quality and gives a sense of art history's mountains, as well as the peaks that museums select for us. I started going to viewings as a teenager and I still love them.<br /><br />Old masters are even more under-rated than auction viewings. It's just inexplicable to me that they are so cheap in a world that's so rich. Whenever a particular picture or auction marginally exceeds expectations there are boosters ready to jump in with stories about market take-off, but in context the market is still in the gutter. You can get an absolute masterpiece for a tenth the cost of a Basquiat, a significant museum-quality picture for a tenth the cost of a central London townhouse, and a pretty good entry-level picture for no more than the price of an annual travelcard in London. Head to Sotheby's and Christie's this week for bargains galore!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rMfu337pnfk/WVpgKhUQTII/AAAAAAAAceg/uZovGhNBep44yj0hdI7FK8QCRTnPLQ7hQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rMfu337pnfk/WVpgKhUQTII/AAAAAAAAceg/uZovGhNBep44yj0hdI7FK8QCRTnPLQ7hQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0274.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Sotheby's sale is strong, with some splendid Northern portraits that are much to my taste and a beautiful Murillo <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.32.html"><i>Ecce Homo </i></a>(£2m-3m). But my favourites were a couple of Italian baroque pictures. The strong artistic culture of that time maintained extraordinarily high standards, taking for granted the technical achievements of the Renaissance and trying to get ahead in swagger and bombast. There's a wonderful little mythological picture of <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.18.html">Bacchus and Ariadne</a> </i>by Francisco Solimena at Sotheby's estimated at just £300k-£400k. It's a virtuoso little showpiece and I love it. But my favourite is Castiglione's <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.36.html">Pagan Sacrifice</a> </i>(£400k-£600k), an incredible picture that I've wanted to see in the flesh ever since I came across it in an old catalogue years ago. It didn't disappoint; one his best pictures. Castiglione can be sloppy, but this one is controlled and the colouration is fabulous.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpT3SYZcEXQ/WVpqMAvC3wI/AAAAAAAAces/oV6UTNPLltoUDunjG52FEDfdhxKVLHmnQCLcBGAs/s1600/the_master_of_the_antwerp_adoration_a_triptych_the_central_panel_the_c_d6088921g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1024" height="239" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpT3SYZcEXQ/WVpqMAvC3wI/AAAAAAAAces/oV6UTNPLltoUDunjG52FEDfdhxKVLHmnQCLcBGAs/s320/the_master_of_the_antwerp_adoration_a_triptych_the_central_panel_the_c_d6088921g.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Christie's has got pobably the most significant work of art in André Beauneveu's marble <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/sculptures-statues-figures/a-carved-marble-group-of-two-addorsed-6083872-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6083872&amp;sid=948cd416-e95e-4d71-90c0-26eaa5ab5540"><i>Lions </i></a>('estimate on request'), a remarkable rediscovery from the tomb of Charles V. My favourite of their pictures is a triptych by the <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/the-master-of-the-antwerp-adoration-a-6088921-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088921&amp;sid=911c67fb-8f0f-48e8-8e5f-40c562918f93">Master of the Antwerp Adoration</a> (£600k-£800k), a delightfully inventive creation with wonderful monkey-like faces. Dutch pictures are thin on the ground this year, but I liked this superior Jan Steen <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/jan-havicksz-steen-boors-playing-a-game-6088919-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088919&amp;sid=911c67fb-8f0f-48e8-8e5f-40c562918f93">Boors playing a game of beugelen</a> </i>(£800k-£1.2m). There's a bargain basement still life, too: a <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/studio-of-ambrosius-bosschaert-i-flowers-in-6088917-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088917&amp;sid=911c67fb-8f0f-48e8-8e5f-40c562918f93">flower piece</a> from the studio of Ambrosius Bosschaert I (£80k-£100k). It's fine quality, and if it was just enough better to lose the 'studio' attribution it would be ten times as much.<br /><br />The drawings viewings are the biggest draw for me. Museums can't keep old master drawings on display, so you have to grab every chance you can to see them. Sotheby's has an exceptional <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-master-british-works-paper-l17040/lot.44.html">Canaletto</a>. I get a bit jaded by vedute, but this drawing has it all. Well worth the £2.5m-£3.5m estimate. Prices fall away rapidly below the very first rank. There's an intriguing and wonderful&nbsp; drawing from <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-master-british-works-paper-l17040/lot.106.html">Rubens's workshop</a> that's been reworked by the man himself estimated at just 1% of the Canaletto, and a beautiful small Poppi <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-master-british-works-paper-l17040/lot.23.html">St John the Baptist and a young standing man</a> </i>(£20k-£30k).<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XAmufXBGKhI/WVpvWv7LrII/AAAAAAAAce8/AQu-SyLzkpE_oVNRHVjEs9R9gqHs3pOwwCLcBGAs/s1600/jusepe_de_ribera_lo_spagnoletto_two_men_hunting_pigeons_and_a_woman_ca_d6088809g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="708" data-original-width="1024" height="221" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XAmufXBGKhI/WVpvWv7LrII/AAAAAAAAce8/AQu-SyLzkpE_oVNRHVjEs9R9gqHs3pOwwCLcBGAs/s320/jusepe_de_ribera_lo_spagnoletto_two_men_hunting_pigeons_and_a_woman_ca_d6088809g.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sometimes estimates don't give you much clue, and old master drawings are especially hard to predict. Christie's has taken a cautious approach. I hate it when the tease me into thinking even I can afford something fabulous. The opening lot, Timoteo Viti's <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/timoteo-viti-the-massacre-of-the-innocents-6088790-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088790&amp;sid=eaa9e5a9-ea6e-4280-b2b7-d8c8bfd8ee23">The Massacre of the Innocents</a> </i>is surely in a higher league than its £25k-£35k estimate. A wonderful <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/jusepe-de-ribera-lo-spagnoletto-two-6088809-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088809&amp;sid=eaa9e5a9-ea6e-4280-b2b7-d8c8bfd8ee23">Ribera</a>, above, is estimated at £80k-£120k. It's interesting to compare to Goya, who would be worth ten to twenty times as much. There's a lot to like in a strong sale, including particularly good English drawings. I loved the well-preserved Romneys. But my absolute favourite is Giuseppe Cades's <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/giuseppe-cades-portrait-of-the-princes-camillo-6088836-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6088836&amp;sid=540f5a74-fd96-471b-b6bb-800197b2b36d"><i>Portrait of the princes Camillo and Francesco Borghese as young boys</i></a> (below). The £20k-£30k estimate is no guide to its quality, and possibly not much guide to its value either.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nf-pC8KyyGQ/WVpwy3JB3EI/AAAAAAAAcfA/ZGwgemQM3yw5-sQMumKIwb0O4TKGaH19QCLcBGAs/s1600/giuseppe_cades_portrait_of_the_princes_camillo_and_francesco_borghese_d6088836g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="879" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nf-pC8KyyGQ/WVpwy3JB3EI/AAAAAAAAcfA/ZGwgemQM3yw5-sQMumKIwb0O4TKGaH19QCLcBGAs/s320/giuseppe_cades_portrait_of_the_princes_camillo_and_francesco_borghese_d6088836g.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>If some things are relatively under-rated, I ought to tell you what I think's over-rated too. I heartily disliked the Frans Hals <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/frans-hals-two-fisherboys-6088943-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6088943&amp;sid=911c67fb-8f0f-48e8-8e5f-40c562918f93">Two Fisherboys</a> </i>(Christie's, £1m-£1.5m). My first thought was Norman Rockwell. Technical analysis shows that it really is old, and Claus Grimm - whose scholarship I revere - thinks it's right. I think it's an awful picture, even if it's an awful picture by Frans Hals. The estimate is too high for a wrong 'un, but surely far too low for an authentic Hals. We'll see. I don't believe the Christie's<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/attributed-to-rembrandt-harmensz-van-rijn-an-6088945-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6088945&amp;lid=1"> 'attributed to Rembrandt'</a>, either. It's 'estimate on request', but I thought it a weak picture that doesn't rise above any number of competent portraits in his late style. <br /><br />Turner's <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2017/old-masters-evening-sale-l17033/lot.21.html"><i>Ehrenbreitstein</i></a> at Sotheby's is unquestionably 'important' (£15m-£25m), but it leaves me cold. I don't care for Turner's figures, and there are too many here. I can admire it, but can't love it.<br /><br />I'll say more about the day sales next week when I write up the results, but lots of minor treasures there too. Let me end on a high note, with a masterpiece from the start of the Western artistic tradition. This <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ancient-art-antiquities/an-attic-red-figured-pelike-attributed-to-the-6084738-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6084738&amp;sid=77a8f1c3-dc00-4eda-aa65-95e391653090">attic red-figured pelike</a> is attributed to the Carpenter Painter, one of the best painters from the best period of Greek vase painting. It's reconstucted from fragments, but the main painted areas seem to be original. Can you believe it's estimated at just £80k-£120k?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z88MUecoS-Y/WVp07Cj1A8I/AAAAAAAAcfE/Oru_HBUa0AU7v0EvkqK1ot-Et7oVvDhkQCLcBGAs/s1600/an_attic_red-figured_pelike_attributed_to_the_carpenter_painter_circa_d6084738g.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="829" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z88MUecoS-Y/WVp07Cj1A8I/AAAAAAAAcfE/Oru_HBUa0AU7v0EvkqK1ot-Et7oVvDhkQCLcBGAs/s320/an_attic_red-figured_pelike_attributed_to_the_carpenter_painter_circa_d6084738g.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-77294801711894334302017-04-11T13:10:00.001-07:002017-04-11T13:10:52.443-07:00'Michelangelo & Sebastiano' at the National Gallery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoP9SqpQ5wA/WO0jUH7l4uI/AAAAAAAAcao/2tZWaA8dh-4WPqFjeCks_AkHO16D1YVJgCLcB/s1600/national_gallery_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qoP9SqpQ5wA/WO0jUH7l4uI/AAAAAAAAcao/2tZWaA8dh-4WPqFjeCks_AkHO16D1YVJgCLcB/s320/national_gallery_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/the-credit-suisse-exhibition-michelangelo-sebastiano">Michelangelo &amp; Sebastiano</a> National Gallery London to 25 June</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sebastiano del Piombo’s great fortune was to be taken under Michelangelo’s wing. But that was his great misfortune too, for he has lingered in Michelangelo's shadow. This scholarly and delightful exhibition traces their relationship, showing the confluence of Michelangelo's genius for composition and Sebastiano's mastery of colour and quirky inventiveness, Michelangelo's supreme command of anatomy and Sebastiano's talents as portraitist. </span></span> <div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the early <i>Judgment of Solomon </i>you get a sense of Sebastiano's soaring ambition, a large complex composition that he couldn’t quite resolve and abandoned unfinished. His encounter with Michelangelo in Rome was fortuitous. Sebastiano got compositional ideas from Michelangelo, Michelangelo got his ideals taken forward in the intensely competitive marketplace that Raphael was starting to dominate.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mix of sublime masterpieces and sometimes faltering trials is compelling. Sometimes you get both together. The Viterbo <i>Pieta </i>(top) is an inventive and moving masterpiece, but who can believe in that masculine mother? A friend said you expect chest hairs to sprout from her robe. The walnut frame was specially made for the exhibition by the National Gallery's Head of Framing, Peter Schade. He also made the new and spectacular frame for the NG's 'first' picture, the great <i>Raising of Lazarus</i>, below in its new frame.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X-x-j9EZn08/WO0z5TdkDKI/AAAAAAAAca4/L122NEE4WOkqlSqiaTur5zWm4wsZmJZ_wCLcB/s1600/cvbvbc.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X-x-j9EZn08/WO0z5TdkDKI/AAAAAAAAca4/L122NEE4WOkqlSqiaTur5zWm4wsZmJZ_wCLcB/s320/cvbvbc.png" width="275" /></a></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">For me the sculptures were the high point and the low point. The plaster cast of Michelangelo's <i>Pieta </i>gives a better feeling for it than the original in Rome, hidden behind inches of glass. The two versions of <i>The Risen Christ</i>, one a cast, are intensely moving, and seen together with Michelangelo's drawings is an unforgettably powerful visual experience. The low point is seeing the Royal Academy's <i>Taddei Tondo </i>imprisoned in a box (below). It's an utterly unsympathetic and depressing display. Better if it weren't there at all. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j296MVigBUY/WO01RSvanqI/AAAAAAAAcbE/lQqXxgekX4MMucwo7zf3ydfoWFH8LIhoQCLcB/s1600/unspecified.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j296MVigBUY/WO01RSvanqI/AAAAAAAAcbE/lQqXxgekX4MMucwo7zf3ydfoWFH8LIhoQCLcB/s320/unspecified.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The selection and display is surprising. Artists' letters are interesting for content rather than form, but this show includes original missives taking space that could have been given to drawings. Sebastiano's portraits have least connection to Michelangelo, but there are some fine examples included. It's wonderful to see them, and the <i>Clement VII </i>is a masterpiece, but they confuse the focus of the exhibition. Worst of all, the National Gallery has been hornswoggled into showing&nbsp; a purported portrait of Michelangelo that might be an <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n08/charles-hope/help-with-his-drawing">outright fake</a>. It's a recent attribution shown as 'Probably by Sebastiano' (what's wrong with the word 'attributed'?). The condition is poor, and so is the anatomy. There's a <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sebastiano-del-piombo-portrait-of-a-lady">better Sebastiano</a> on loan from Longford Castle in the main galleries, in a little focus exhibition of works related to the exhibition. Discoveries seem new and exciting, but selection should be driven by quality rather than celebrity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Both artists benefited from collaboration, which this exhibition shows brilliantly. But who can stand comparison to a genius like Michelangelo? Inevitably Sebastiano is diminished by juxtaposition. Sebastiano was a wonderful draughtsman, but he seems almost feeble set against some of Michelangelo’s greatest hits. A show that ought to have rehabilitated Sebastiano has pushed him further into the shadows. And that is my main reservation about this exhibition. Conceiving of the show as ‘Michelangelo &amp; Sebastiano’ keys into our worst expectations of exhibitions: ‘unmissable’ blockbuster (‘Michelangelo – so famous he was even a </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles">Ninja Turtle</a></span></span>!), or else as competition (who’s the best? As if that could be in doubt). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you know anything about Sebastiano, it's that he was Michelangelo's ally against Raphael. I just wish the exhibition had been oriented more explicitly to the wider context. <i>La Madonna del Velo </i>is an obvious response to Raphael, as the catalogue notes, and the portraits seem indebted to Raphael too. It wasn't simply a time of Renaissance rivalry. Personal rivalries make compelling stories, but in the long run the creative mix of ideas was more important. And beneath that unbelievable triad of Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael were dozens of lesser artists who deserve more attention. Some are distinctive and well understood, like Sebastiano, but others are still hard to isolate like Gianfrancesco Penni.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Commercial reality and cultural expectations conspire to push museums towards simple formulae. A lot of critics have failed to grasp the show, seemingly disappointed that Michelangelo is encumbered by the little guy. But museums of the National Gallery's stature ought to be able to take more risks. How wonderful it would be to see the little guys together, to see how the second tier drew on the breakthroughs of the High Renaissance and try to get closer to some of mysterious students and followers. In the meantime we just have to make the effort to appreciate Sebastiano in his own terms, as well as enjoying some of the absolute pinnacles of human culture in this show. </span></span></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-48991616044591184682016-10-09T09:51:00.002-07:002016-10-09T09:51:19.150-07:00At the British Museum: French Portrait Drawings<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/french_portrait_drawings.aspx"><img alt="Portrait of an old man; head and shoulders of a bearded old man turned slightly to r, looking to front, wearing a simple cap with curls of hair protruding beneath, full beard and moustache, wearing an open shirt Black and red chalk, with blue-grey wash" src="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00252/AN00252306_001_l.jpg?width=304" /></a></div><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/french_portrait_drawings.aspx">French Portrait Drawings: From Clouet to Courbet</a>&nbsp;British Museum to 29 January, free<br /><br />This&nbsp;exquisite&nbsp;exhibition shows the evolution of portrait drawing in France, but it's also about the development of the British Museum's collection. It shows some smart recent acquisitions, and some obscure drawings that deserve more attention.<br /><br />The British Museum's collection of drawings is arguably the greatest in the world, but its backbone is a handful of old private collections whose idiosyncrasies persist. The Italian old masters are broad and deep, but other schools are more patchy. They have a wonderful group of Watteau drawings, but other French artists were collected inconsistently. A&nbsp;<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?searchText=jacques-louis+david&amp;object=22909">database search</a>&nbsp;reveals just three drawings by the prolific draughtsman Jacques-Louis David, and their first&nbsp;<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3663993&amp;partId=1&amp;searchText=vouet&amp;object=22909&amp;page=1">Vouet&nbsp;</a>was acquired just last year. Many fine drawings in this show have been acquired quite recently, including a superb&nbsp;<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/system_pages/beta_collection_introduction/beta_collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=3039202&amp;partId=1&amp;searchText=isabey&amp;object=22909&amp;page=1">Isabey&nbsp;</a>(2007) and Labadye (2001). All the recent acquisitions were excellent choices. I was also surprised by how many superb drawings I'd never seen or heard of, like the wonderful image illustrated above, attributed to Pierre Biard II on the basis of the inscription. More information on the attribution can be found on the BM's&nbsp;<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=721950&amp;partId=1&amp;searchText=biard&amp;object=22909&amp;page=1">catalogue entry</a>.<br /><br />Neil Jeffares&nbsp;<a href="https://neiljeffares.wordpress.com/2016/09/11/french-portrait-drawings-from-clouet-to-courbet-at-the-british-museum/#respond">complains&nbsp;</a>of the lack of Louis XV drawings, and of great draughtsmen who are unrepresented. I do not recognise that problem. An exhibition of French&nbsp;<i>portrait&nbsp;</i>drawings shouldn't be a microcosm of the development of drawing in France. More balanced representation of French draughtsmanship would have meant some combination of a larger show, a more diffuse theme or less representation of recently acquired nineteenth century drawings. I thought the show varied and interesting, and its theme is coherent. It asks what makes a portrait drawing different from a figure study. One drawing is of hands, but it is clearly intended as a portrait. A Watteau drawing was used for a figure in one of his pictures at the Wallace Collection, but it is such a distinct character that it clearly qualifies as a portrait drawing. Some portrait drawings are made as cheaper versions of painted portraits, but others are more personal and intimate. I thought the drawing attributed to Perroneau weak, and there were four too many Carmontelles for my taste, but the overall quality and interest was outstanding.<br /><br />In other words, there is more to this show than just an assemblage of stuff from the vaults, and that is why a catalogue would have been so welcome. I share Neil Jeffares's lament at its absence. Evidence from second hand bookshops is that cheap little catalogues used to be produced regularly for small museum shows, but today there are either grand glossy books or else nothing at all. A catalogue need not be a definitive scholarly account, but reproductions of the drawings with some background information would have been welcome. I surmise that the biggest barrier is bureaucratic rather than financial, and the internal approvals needed are now too onerous. Helpfully the wall text is available&nbsp;<a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/PDF/French_portraits_drawings_15-09-2016.pdf">online</a>.<br /><br />The BM bureaucracy has treated Prints &amp; Drawings brutally. It has become much less accessible since its opening hours were curtailed and walk-in visits banned. I went to see some German drawings when I visited the exhibition, and I have never seen the print room so quiet. For much of the time there were no other visitors, and only a couple of other people visited the morning I was there. It used to be possible to request drawings as you go along, but now everything must be ordered in advance, reducing flexibility and militating against serendipity. I'd booked a full day, but left at lunchtime as I didn't dare try to request anything else. It is an absolute scandal that such a great collection has become so inaccessible and is so little used. The sight of the study room filled with visitors ranging from wizened scholars classifying the Carracci to casual visitors wanting to see Dürer's&nbsp;<i>Rhinoceros&nbsp;</i>was heartwarming, and the contrast with the emptiness last week was just tragic. It's time to resurrect the old proposal to move the entire department to the National Gallery, whose collection it complements. The Prints &amp; Drawings department would be better loved, it would add impetus to acquire drawings related to the NG's paintings, and it would encourage better integration of graphic art into NG exhibitions. It was absurd that their Veronese exhibition didn't include any drawings. The emptiness of the study room shows that&nbsp;<i>something&nbsp;</i>must be done differently.Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-12184767190308070742016-09-30T02:39:00.000-07:002016-09-30T02:39:57.613-07:00Brian Sewell Sale<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for sewell hockney christie's kirton" src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/D60206/david_hockney_om_ch_ra_the_village_street_kirton_near_felixstowe_suffo_d6020663h.jpg" /></div>A large part of Brian Sewell's private collection was <a href="http://www.christies.com/brian-sewell--critic-26710.aspx?saletitle=">sold at Christie's</a> this week, and it has come in for quite a battering from envious (and often ignorant) critics. The New Statesman even <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/2016/06/what-brian-sewells-art-auction-tells-us-about-man-and-industry">asserts </a>that he didn't own a Hockney. <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/david-hockney-om-ch-ra-the-village-6020663-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020663&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">He did</a>, and it's pictured above. Edward Lucie-Smith says it "looks like the drearier sort of fairly competent, totally conservative semi-amateur painting that might just about scrape into an R.A. Summer exhibition today". On the contrary, it's far too good for today's R.A. summer show. It's a beautiful and surprising picture with a marvelous sense of colour; you can't appreciate those subtle pinks in reproduction. It was well bought for just £32,500, which would barely cover the artist resale rights on one of his recent monstrosities.<br /><br />The sale made over £3.7m. That should impress <a href="http://www.artlyst.com/articles/brian-sewell-collection-out-of-touch-with-the-art-of-his-times">Lucie-Smith</a>, who seems to think that you judge an art collection by its monetary appreciation, as if it's all about guessing future monied taste. I was more impressed by its personal quality. He wasn't curating a memorial to himself, or playing the market. This is a man who requested a pauper's burial for himself. He bought widely, and supported artists of his own generation like Craxton and Minton who remain cheap, but were often rather good. He had a particular affinity for Eliot Hodgkin's beautiful still lifes, which I adore too. These pictures were bought for Sewell's own enjoyment. They weren't meant to impress other critics, and not all of them impressed me. But there were many lovely 'minor' pictures that were really well chosen: a charming picture of an <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/adolf-schlabitz-an-orange-tree-6020573-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020573&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">orange tree</a>, a fabulous picture of a <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/carl-frederich-heinrich-werner-the-battle-of-6020564-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020564&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">building destroyed in battle</a>, and a striking twentieth century <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/camden-town-school-a-sunlit-interior-6020643-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020643&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">interior</a>, maybe by Malcolm Drummond.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for sewell mervyn peake christie's" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAsgsGISc_E1BVBV2mG3LWs7QNecgM57N9pFIBFc1Gy9_LWBer" /></div>He did have some remarkable masterpieces, too. The fabulous Daniele da Volterra drawing of <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/daniele-ricciarelli-called-daniele-da-volterra-dido-6020430-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6020430&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">Dido </a>sold to a museum (the Met?) for £797k against an upper estimate of £150k. My personal favourite was this design by <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/baldassare-peruzzi-design-for-a-bench-the-6020435-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intobjectid=6020435&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">Peruzzi</a>, which I thought cheap at £353k. Two Stomers were unsold. I confess that I didn't care for them. I find him the least satisfying of the Dutch Caravaggists, and a lot of his pictures have been on the market recently. But the superb oil sketch by <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/andrea-sacchi-the-madonna-and-child-with-6020531-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020531&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">Andrea Sacchi</a>&nbsp;(above) sold for £233k against an upper estimate of £80k. I'd love it to have gone to the National Gallery.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for sewell mervyn peake christie's" src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/D60206/mervyn_peake_studies_of_centaurs_d6020630h.jpg" /></div>It was a long sale with quite disparate works, and there were bargains along the way. Some things might have done better in specialist sales. Perhaps this wonderful <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/mervyn-peake-studies-of-centaurs-6020630-details.aspx?from=salesummery&amp;intObjectID=6020630&amp;sid=e4ffef78-9642-4e6b-8f7b-fb444e316571">Mervyn Peake drawing </a>(above)&nbsp;would have sold better in a literature sale. Less than five grand for such an emotive and beautiful drawing by an important writer and illustrator, created at a key moment in World War II seems a steal. But it was a joy to see Brian Sewell's things as a group, and get a new insight into this brilliant critic and connoisseur.Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-41399166815061932222016-07-04T23:53:00.002-07:002016-07-04T23:53:29.058-07:00Auction previews: summer old masters at Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonham's<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KJv7g-WSR1U/V3lepoSQMrI/AAAAAAAAbbA/sS08YqFc5XcAJDQzXdjCJvvE6MMBq2DugCLcB/s1600/1ca25d12-7dcf-44a2-a49d-c15bc2c81af9_570.Jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KJv7g-WSR1U/V3lepoSQMrI/AAAAAAAAbbA/sS08YqFc5XcAJDQzXdjCJvvE6MMBq2DugCLcB/s320/1ca25d12-7dcf-44a2-a49d-c15bc2c81af9_570.Jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div>Take a moment to look at the image above. Better still, follow <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/donato-creti-alexander-cutting-the-gordian-knot-6010135-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6010135&amp;sid=38c59cf3-80ff-4743-aaed-7ef8477316ec">this link</a> and zoom in on the Christie's website. It's not the sort of thing to open a blog post, or put on Instagram. It's not an immediately powerful picture, especially in this dirty and worn state. But it's a real highlight of the Christie's old master sale on Thursday. It's <i>Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot </i>by Donato Creti, a scarce and underrated artist. At first impression it compares unfavourably to Poussin; similar subject matter and composition, but without his scintillating orchestration of colours and dramatic integration of figures by rhyming gestures. Closer up, you see a beauty in the figures and groups that exceeds even Poussin, whose intellectualism could get the better of him. It's not a painting for our times. Its compelling beauty is readily recongnised when we take time to look, but the impact isn't immediate and there's not recognisable stylistic brand.<br /><br />Good doesn't mean valuable, and just because I think it's under-appreciated doesn't mean it's under-estimated. I really do think it will sell above the enticing estimate of £250k-£350k, but I don't think it will take its rightful place at the pinnacle of the market. This summer's old master sales are especially strong, with some consummate masterpieces. But for me the real reward of viewing is finding hidden gems like this.<br /><br />This week the picture at the pinnacle is Rubens's <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6010107">Lot and His Daughters</a>&nbsp;</i>, also at Christie's&nbsp;('estimate on request', was £20m-£30m even before Brexit). It's a magnificent picture, one of the best I've seen in the London salerooms. Do read the excellent catalogue essay, though I was irritated by the bit at the end making it 'relevant' by reference to Gauguin, Francis Bacon and Picasso, which was a bit of a stretch. And what a perversion that the estimate wouldn't get you even a second-rate Francis Bacon!<br /><br />It's unusual for a portrait where neither artist nor sitter is known to be included in the evening sale, but this (probably) <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/dutch-school-circa-1655-portrait-of-a-6010111-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6010111&amp;sid=38c59cf3-80ff-4743-aaed-7ef8477316ec">Dutch picture</a> is a worthy exception. Estimate of £100k-£150k is well below what a picture of this quality with a secure attribution would make. It's another picture that's harder to appreciate in reproduction, but it really shone at the viewing.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8PLlWaY8P-g/V3tP1ErdFKI/AAAAAAAAbcI/K5C6ucdu3cE-YAaYKe0febuSmSFFhDAGwCLcB/s1600/408N08825_68YNJ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8PLlWaY8P-g/V3tP1ErdFKI/AAAAAAAAbcI/K5C6ucdu3cE-YAaYKe0febuSmSFFhDAGwCLcB/s320/408N08825_68YNJ.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Christie's has the stronger sale this time, but <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033.html">Sotheby's </a>has some fine things. I can get jaded by Dutch still lives, but there are two exceptional ones being sold this week. A large <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.11.html">Jan Brueghel the Elder</a> flower still life, recently restituted to Rothschild heirs, is an extraordinary masterpiece of a popular type of early flower still life, larger and better than most (est. £3m-£5m). Good to see in the context of the current small show at the National Gallery, and it surpasses most there. A still life by <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.15.html">Pieter Claesz</a> (above, £1.8m-£2.5m) is typical, but utterly brilliant. The play of light is acutely observed. Italian renaissance artists are credited as universal geniuses for their interest in science, whereas the Dutch are often seen as talented painters alone. The Dutch golden age had a more developed division of labour, but urban communities were still small and tightly knit. Surely there would be some crossover between scientists like Van Leeuwenhoek and artists like Claesz. This picture is a fascinating tour de force.<br /><br />Do have a look at their <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.16.html">Jan Steen</a>, an infuriatingly inconsistent artist. This raucous scene is just what we want in a Steen. It's estimated at £120k-£180k, which is about right for a mediocre Steen, but I think this one is better than that. At one point a jug had been painted in to disguise the urinating boy in the foreground! Teutonic portraits are unfashionable unless by Cranach or Holbein, which is the only way I can explain an estimate of just £60k-£80k for this Beham <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.27.html">Portrait of Ludwig X, Duke of Bavaria</a>. I also like this cheap <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.2.html">Coecke van Aelst</a>, with some studio participation as usual, but beautifully preserved and a bargain at £60k-£80k. Finally this Niccolò di ser Sozzo <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-paintings-evening-l16033/lot.25.html">Crucifixion </a></i>is a new discovery, and I thought the best of the gold ground pictures being sold this week (£150k-£200k).<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gTpQtWRtnZg/V3tUmZDFkWI/AAAAAAAAbcY/SBPJEm2o0Zg5JkslgiUvGsBK-DD-qCbhQCLcB/s1600/giovanni-battista-tiepolo-venice-1696-1770head-of-a-boy-in-a-cap-looking-up-to-the-left-his-left-hand-to-his-cheek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gTpQtWRtnZg/V3tUmZDFkWI/AAAAAAAAbcY/SBPJEm2o0Zg5JkslgiUvGsBK-DD-qCbhQCLcB/s320/giovanni-battista-tiepolo-venice-1696-1770head-of-a-boy-in-a-cap-looking-up-to-the-left-his-left-hand-to-his-cheek.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Christie's Old Master Drawings sale includes a stunningly beautiful Giovanni Battista Tiepolo <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/giovanni-battista-tiepolo-head-of-a-boy-6009920-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6009920&amp;sid=d7338920-ade4-47ec-ac65-f091f718add4">Head of a Boy </a></i>(above, £200k-£300k). But as always, there are many much more modestly estimated things of real quality. I liked this Sebald Beham <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/sebald-beham-a-winged-putto-beside-a-6009926-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6009926&amp;sid=9f4e6bc8-67b0-4fed-b70d-5b3eee74e7bb">Winged Putto</a> </i>(£18k-£25k) and Giulio Romano <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/giulio-pippi-called-giulio-romano-a-roman-6009899-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=6009899&amp;sid=78ddeba0-333b-4265-904d-6a5173080d36">Roman officer with mounted musicians</a> </i>(£15k-£20k).</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EwvZUIJf7B4/V3n5c36yzGI/AAAAAAAAbbQ/z2S9YnTItf8JDrauVoRQwn1lF2L1kQVBwCLcB/s1600/003L16040_7ZGF2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EwvZUIJf7B4/V3n5c36yzGI/AAAAAAAAbbQ/z2S9YnTItf8JDrauVoRQwn1lF2L1kQVBwCLcB/s320/003L16040_7ZGF2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sotheby's has a strong sale of <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040.html#&amp;page=1&amp;sort=lotSortNum-asc&amp;viewMode=list">old master drawings</a>, as usual starting at modest prices.<br /><br />I particularly like <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040/lot.12.html">this tiny Veronese</a>&nbsp;(above), which is cheaply estimated at £80k-£120k. Veronese's drawings have always been highly prized, his rapid sketches giving a window to his creativity. The combination of rapid compositional sketches and wash study of hands is particularly attractive in this one. Veronese's drawings have always been ardently collected, but the sale is headed by an artist much less well known as a great draughtsman. This outstanding&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040/lot.216.html">Lely self-portrait</a>&nbsp;compares with the best of his continental peers and deserves its £600k-£800k estimate. The Veronese is a working sketch whose beauty is accidental, whereas the Lely is a self-conscious manifesto of the artist's genius. Both drawings have rich provenances. The Lely has passed down directly to his descendants; this is the first time it's been sold. The Veronese was owned by Jonathan Richardson senior and Sir Joshua Reynolds, and is now being sold from the last part of the collection of the great connoisseur Paul Oppé, whose British drawings are now at the Tate.<br /><br />The Oppé section also features a magnificent group of caricatures by Stefano della Bella estimated at around £10k each, and one of the finest <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040/lot.41.html">Claude landscapes</a> I've seen. Sotheby's also has an <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040/lot.357.html">album of drawings </a>after paintings in the nineteenth century collection of Dawson Turner, who owned the Bellini now in Birmingham. It's attractive in its own right, but also an important document in the history of collecting. I'd love it to go to a public collection, and it's surely affordable even in these cash-strapped times, at an estimated £7k-£10k.<br /><br />A final choice is Fragonard's <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/old-master-british-drawings-l16040/lot.231.html">The Inspiration of the Artist</a>. </i>Fragonard was one of the greatest draughtsman, and prolific. His drawings turn up often, but this one is quite exceptional. The perfect rococo subject, and in perfect condition; many are sadly faded, but here you can appreciate the range of tones as he intended. Estimate of £100k-£150k is modest for this.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VnPjTcYvebs/V3tHKiiXzeI/AAAAAAAAbb4/TvfzGMqNSc4HLzYlwYjnBMl0Tg76fIyMgCLcB/s1600/255L16040_8ZT5K.jpg.thumb.385.385.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VnPjTcYvebs/V3tHKiiXzeI/AAAAAAAAbb4/TvfzGMqNSc4HLzYlwYjnBMl0Tg76fIyMgCLcB/s320/255L16040_8ZT5K.jpg.thumb.385.385.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sotheby's and Christie's both have decorative art sales on view alongside the paintings and drawings sales, and these Italian renaissance <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/treasures-l16303/lot.7.html">cassone </a>at Sotheby's stood out. Once highly prized, many fakes were made and genuine examples are rare. These are particularly fine, and seem incredibly cheap at the estimated £120k-£180k.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23327/">Bonham's </a>has some good things, including a fine Claude landscape. Most intriguing was this unattributed <i><a href="https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/23327/lot/46/">St Ambrose</a> </i>of high quality, but estimated at just £10k-£15k. A number of lots at Bonham's carry low estimates to entice bidders; I'm sure this will go much higher.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-63293113478759308492016-05-23T23:04:00.000-07:002016-05-23T23:04:58.528-07:00Let her go<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="357" src="http://www.artfund.org/assets/art-news/2016/Armada/Armada_portrait-of-elizabeth-i-main.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: The Art Fund</span></td></tr></tbody></table>The Art Fund has launched an <a href="http://www.artfund.org/news/2016/05/23/art-fund-and-royal-museums-greenwich-launch-appeal-to-save-iconic-armada-portrait-of-elizabeth-i">appeal </a>to buy this picture for £16 million for the National Maritime Museum. It might be the prime version of a famous picture of a famous queen, but there are two others. One is at the National Portrait Gallery, which is just seven miles from the National Maritime Museum. Its importance is 'iconic', as The Art Fund press release says, rather than artistic. And we already have this icon in London. It's too much money for a picture that's essentially a duplicate, and of meager artistic quality.<br /><br />The sellers have timed the offer well. The old master market is in the doldrums, but early English portraits are selling astonishingly well. Them seem merely clumsy to me, but their mix of 'merrie England' naivety and Tudor bling appeals to some of today's rich. I don't blame the sellers for timing the market. But Britain's public collections tend to mistime acquisitions perfectly, competing with the mega-rich for the most expensive pictures of the day and ignoring unfashionable bargains. The Art Fund has always known that this picture was in a British private collection. But they never seem to think strategically; did they try to buy it previously? And which unfashionable pictures are they trying to buy cheaply today?<br /><br />And is this really a £16m picture? Portraits of Henry VIII from Holbein's workshop recently sold for <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15033/lot.7.html">£821k</a> and <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15033/lot.7.html">£965k</a>. They're not prime versions, but they're artistically better than the <i>Armada Portrait</i>, and equally iconic. I can accept that the likely prime version of the Armada Portrait is more valuable than studio replicas of Holbein's Henry VIII, but twenty times more seems a stretch. That money could buy a Titian or Rembrandt. For less than half the price (£7.3m) we could have had the fantastic&nbsp;<a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/626692">Le Brun</a> portrait bought by the Met, which is a great picture from a school poorly represented in UK collections. With the change we could have bought portraits by <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/scipione-pulzone-called-il-gaetano-portrait-of-5649698-details.aspx">Scipione Pulzone</a>, <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/old-master-paintings-n08061/lot.125.html">Ludovico Carraci</a> and <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/old-master-paintings-evening-sale-l08036/lot.35.html">Girolamo da Carpi</a>. Or for £14m we could have bought a great <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/poussin-painting-at-risk-of-export">Poussin</a>, an incomparably better picture. None of these are big names, and they're not especially fashionable. But we should be buying pictures based on quality and importance rather than choosing pictures that lend themselves most easily to publicity campaigns. Art collecting is being driven by public relations, which generally means pictures with some patriotic story behind them, because The Art Fund's PR department only has that one script.<br /><br />If private donors think the Armada Portrait is good value, and really want to keep this picture in Britain, I won't stand in their way. I'll even agree that it would be a nice acquisition for the National Maritime Museum. But it's not just private donors. The Art Fund is largely subsidised by the taxpayer, in that its members receive free or reduced admission to publicly funded museums and exhibitions. That's a large part of why most people join, and that money funneled to The Art Fund comes straight out of the pockets of public museums. It's effectively a way of moving money from general expenditure to acquisition spending, but at immense bureaucratic cost. And The Art Fund seems especially unskilled at identifying the best things to buy.<br /><br />There's another big subsidy in that £6m in tax will be remitted. I'm delighted by a £6m subsidy for the arts. But this is an arbitrary £6m subsidy, available only to specific works that are already in the UK. Effectively the government is paying full face value for a gift token that can be used only for one work of art, instead of just giving the money directly so that museums can choose the pictures they want.<br /><br />The Art Fund has recently called for a review of the system of export licenses. I call for the whole rotten process to be abolished. If a foreign buyer is willing to pay £16m for this, let them have it. And let our museums compete to buy pictures from abroad, rather than having to go after the latest picture that The Art Funds wants to 'save'.Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-13643709979891960652016-05-08T04:32:00.000-07:002016-05-08T04:32:15.866-07:00Who will review the reviewers? Thoughts on Giorgione<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="400" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ce0lcueXEAAKyP4.jpg" width="400" /></div><div><i><a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/in-the-age-of-giorgione">In the Age of&nbsp;Giorgione</a>&nbsp;</i>Royal Academy London to 5 June</div><div><br /></div><div>The word 'Age' is a warning sign in exhibition titles. It means 'we couldn't borrow the things we wanted, so we've blurred the edges a bit'. Blurring boundaries can be interesting and context is good, but it feels like they just gave up on this show when they couldn't get the big loans. They've stretched poor Giorgione to breaking point with mad attributions. The catalogue lacks conviction, just listing the views of other art historians next to the appalling grainy reproductions. And the display is filled out with a jumble of mostly early sixteenth century Venetian pictures of often questionable relevance.</div><div><br /></div><div>It makes me yearn for Brian Sewell, who would have skewered it.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead we have Laura Cumming in the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/13/age-of-giorgione-exhibition-royal-academy-london-review">Observer&nbsp;</a>describing it as "something close to a miracle", and claiming that it includes a dozen Giorgiones. Two separate reviews in the Telegraph by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/art/102551/in-the-age-of-giorgione-at-the-royal-academy-review.html">Louisa Buck</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/in-the-age-of-giorgione-royal-academy-an-elusive-master-emerges/">Mark Hudson</a>&nbsp;claim it includes seven out of 'ten or so' authentic Giorgiones. The New York Times's former art correspondent got in trouble for plagiarising Wikipedia. These critics don't even google. The FT is maddest of the lot, illustrating its review with one of the most implausible Giorgiones, claiming that the old dullard Cariani is the star of the show and describing the most mendacious curation as 'honest'. Even the smart reviewers have been too polite. A splendid, smart piece by <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n07/charles-hope/at-the-royal-academy">Charles Hope</a> casts a sceptical eye on the definition of this most enigmatic artist. Hope's essay is subtle; he isn't criticising connoisseurship, but implying preference for caution in face of uncertainty. I favour his epistemic stance, but he failed to give the show the kicking it so richly deserves.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Before I kick, I must urge you to see this show. There are some exceptional pictures here, and it does provide some valuable comparisons. It's worth travelling a long way just to see the <i>Terris Portrait</i>, top, which is one of the only secure Giorgiones on display. I've seen it at its home in San Diego, but it looks much better here, flanked by two Dürer portraits painted in Venice at the same time. It's a fantastic painting that's hard to appreciate in reproductions, with a monumental presence far disproportionate to its size. Confronting this picture in the first room really shows why Giorgione was so highly esteemed.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.artuk.org/w944h944/GL/GL_GM_181.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://static.artuk.org/w944h944/GL/GL_GM_181.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>I saw the Glasgow&nbsp;<i>Christ and the Adulteress&nbsp;</i>as more Titian-like than I'd previously appreciated; the current consensus for Titian now seems right to me. The wispy adulteress falling into the picture from the right looks especially Giorgionesque. But the dynamism, the gestures and the integration of figures is all Titian. It's worn and cut down, and even harder to appreciate on a tiny scale, but the composition is remarkably sophisticated. The catalogue describes it simply as diagonal, but it's more complex than that. There's nothing like it in Giorgione, who was more about mood than drama.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Another picture that I reassessed was the&nbsp;<i>Cornbury Park Altarpiece&nbsp;</i>by Bellini, which was one of my favourite pictures in my home town museum. Seeing it in a different context helped me appreciate better its weaknesses, and I absolutely disagree with the catalogue's assertion that, "the quality of the painting is so high that the contribution of the workshop, should it exist, is almost impossible to detect". On the contrary, different styles are readily recongnisable. The saints' heads are exceptionally Dürer-esque, the donor Memling-like and the Madonna and Child very typical of Bellini's workshop, and not of the highest quality.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>I like two Sebastianos that I'd never seen before, <i>Birth of Adonis </i>and <i>Death of Adonis</i>&nbsp;from La Spezia. The technique is unusual; they seem to have been painted quickly and broadly, which in this case seems not to be the result of bad restoration. The catalogue speculates that they may have been cassone panels, but they seem intended to be seen from below. Perhaps they once formed part of a frieze, hung high where that marvelous sky would have looked magnificent, but finely painted detail would be invisible.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>Consideration of condition must be at the heart of this show, and it's central to forming a view of Giorgione. A lot of the pictures are severely abraded, and some seem much repainted. Only a handful appear well-preserved, including a wonderful Lorenzo Lotto from the Louvre and a <i>Virgin and Child with St Catherine and Saint John the Baptist </i>only 'attributed' to Sebastiano del Piombo, but which seems quite right to me. The Venetian use of thin glazes renders them vulnerable to harsh cleaning, and maybe the soft contours appeared dirty to some early owners. But I wonder if there isn't also a selection bias here. The more badly they are scrubbed, the more they look like they might once have been by Giorgione. Some of these ghostly relics are now impossible to assess.</div><div><br /></div><div>The connoisseurial potential of the show—trying to discern Giorgione's hand from others who painted in his style—is undermined by the sheer raving lunacy of the attributions. Giorgione is a controversial artist, and many pictures have been attributed to him over the years. But there are controversial pictures, and there are outright impossibilities. I'm not even convinced that all the pictures 'attributed to Giorgione' here are even Venetian, or of the right period. Two stood out as especially outrageous.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>A picture tentatively identified as&nbsp;<i>David Between Saul and Jonathan </i>is singled out for criticism in Charles Hope's essay. The attribution was originally made in a certificate bought and paid for by a previous owner. The modern equivalent of the 'certificate of authenticity' is the exhibition catalogue. It won't shift the view that this isn't by Giorgione, but inclusion at the RA lends it undeserved legitimacy. Maybe some one will buy it because they think it might be right, like the silly new 'Leonardos' that turn up from time to time, sometimes selling for high prices. It's evidently not Giorgione, and the prevarication of the catalogue entry makes it clear the curators don't think so either.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second shocking misattribution is the&nbsp;<i>Virgin and Child in a Landscape </i>from the Hermitage, which is one of the only pictures given fully to Giorgione. It isn't. And I don't believe the curators think it is, either. It seems to have been substantially repainted at a later date, but there is nothing here to indicate it was ever by Giorgione. The Hermitage insisted that their <i>Madonna Litta </i>was given in full to Leonardo in the recent London exhibition, although few believe it is. I suspect this was another stipulation by the dogmatic anti-intellectuals there. But why on earth did the RA agree? The picture is trivial, and unnecessary to the show. The Hermitage gains, because they can cite another source seeming to endorse another of their extravagant claims. But the RA just looks meek and corrupt.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not the only picture whose inclusion in the show is perplexing. Cariani is a very different artist from Giorgione, and a rather repetitive painter. Yet there are six of them here. And some of the Sebastianos and Titians were oddly selected, some brought across continents when there are better examples five minutes down the road at the National Gallery.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an obviously problematic show. I don't know the politics of the RA, but it seemed they themselves don't really believe in it. They have skimped on the catalogue, eschewed all commentary on the wall labels and avoided expression of opinion. I don't know where responsibility lies, whether with the powers-that-be at the RA or the curators who arranged this exhibition. But having seen the show, I am quite certain which critics deserve censure.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>&nbsp;</div><br /><div><br /></div></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-46512583765585543042015-12-22T22:55:00.001-08:002015-12-22T22:55:36.903-08:00Why the old master market really is dead<div style="text-align: center;"><img height="246" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/081114-dead-parrot-hmed-2p.380;380;7;70;0.jpg" width="320" /></div>The lackluster totals from the recent old master auctions in London prompted more observations about the parlous state of the old master market. I liked Scott Reyburn's account in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/arts/international/old-masters-prices-are-no-laughing-matter.html?_r=1">New York Times</a>, but <a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3724_Is_the_Old_Master_market_dead_ctd">Bendor Grosvenor</a> has issued a firm critique with useful data. But I'm still with Reyburn, and I think Bendor's evidence reinforces Reyburn's conclusion, if we put it in context.<br /><br />The important question is what you're comparing against. The value of money itself changes, so you have to adjust for inflation. But over time economies tend to grow, so any sector simply keeping up with inflation isn't doing so well. Sectors wax and wane, of course. But if the auto industry is booming and Ford's sales are increasing in double digits, it's not enough for General Motors to say they're doing great because their sales are in line with the overall economy. Bendor's charts show old masters just about keeping up with inflation at a time when the potential market is booming because there are far more very rich people in the world, with far more disposable income. It's just that they're spending that income on modern and contemporary art, which is booming. That can't be explained away as a speculative bubble, because it's supported by strong market demand that's boosting all kinds of luxury products—except old master paintings.<br /><br />It's not just that there are more rich people. Wealth increased significantly in the post-war boom, but there was a big lag before the art market took off. One reason for that is relatively high tax rates and relatively high returns to labour rather than capital. But that didn't change until the subsequent growth of the art market was already well underway. I think the other aspect is that returns on investment were strong as the economy recovered after the war. There was high demand for capital, and good long-term returns. Today that's not so true; returns on all asset classes are muted and &nbsp;growth is sluggish. So it makes sense for the elite to divert resources towards consumption—which, again, is exactly what we've seen in the luxury good industry, and in every sector of the art market&nbsp;<i>except </i>old master paintings. Old masters really are the anomaly.<br /><br />Historically the old master market performed much as you might expect based on the changing fortunes of the very rich.&nbsp;In the early twentieth century they were booming, as American millionaires entered the market for the first time. After the depression prices fell sharply. There have been plenty of strong trends, even if they even out over the very long term. Incidentally, even in the boom years of the early twentieth century dealers complained about the difficulty of obtaining good mark-ups on pictures bought at auction; Duveen liked to buy collections en bloc to avoid the anchor of publicised prices, and Wildenstein kept things in stock for decades before resale. Agnew used to sell stock bought at auction on very thin margins in the nineteenth century. And there are still plenty of dealers buying at auction and then selling retail in Mayfair or at Maastricht. I think the bigger story is that old master dealers are being squeezed in a declining market, not that their old business model has suddenly failed.<br /><br />Finally, we can look more anecdotally at the market itself. Some parts do better than others; prices for Dutch pictures and Brueghels seem to have softened recently. Elizabethan portraits are doing better. French eighteenth century pictures are especially out of favour. But the overall impression is that really good mid-range pictures are selling consistently poorly if you think in terms of their relation to house prices, or to the incomes of the relatively affluent (top professionals and business leaders). Today a month's income for a barrister, or partner in a big accounting or consulting firm would buy a picture that would grace a museum. And there are more people earning those salaries than ever before. It's just that they're buying contemporary art.<br /><br /><b>A coda on data</b><br />Because each old master painting is unique, there's no reliable indicator equivalent to, say, the price of gold. Even the same picture re-sold may come with a different attribution, or following restoration that may have helped or hurt its value. Sales volume in the overall market is hard to find, because of coding and categorisation issues. The top auction houses re-position themselves from time to time, going into the mid-market and then pulling back. Supply is only slightly elastic. The 'three Ds' (death, divorce, death) produce a reliable stream of consignments from forced sellers, but rising prices don't automatically secure big increases in supply. But rising prices do tempt treasures into the market, so there's a degree of pro-cyclicality in raw sales data, as well as volatility because the market is so thin.<br /><br />Bendor's data show sales increasing slightly above inflation, which in the context I've described is frankly dreadful. Sotheby's closed its Olympia saleroom and Phillips withdrew entirely from the old master market in that period. The data are difficult to obtain, because old master picture sales sometimes include drawings and sculptures (including a £29.7m Raphael), and old masters are sometimes sold in other sales (such as mixed single owner sales). The trend line is influenced by start date; I calculate Sotheby's results from 2002 to have been £153m, inflation-adjusted, which may have given a different slant to the trend. But the only element I really object to is comparing performance with the FTSE <i>without </i>reinvesting dividends, which is meaningless (do we assume the dividends were just eaten?). I don't think art should be treated as an investment class, for the reasons Bendor himself sets out. And for what it's worth, I don't think it's right to call the contemporary market a 'speculative bubble', though economic shifts could easily see significant price falls.<br /><br />Artprice has an alternative&nbsp;<a href="http://www.artprice.com/artmarketinsight/536/Art+market+barometer">index </a>showing old master prices declining, but their index shows far more volatility than I perceive in the actual market, so take their data with a pinch of salt.Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-4829928307099114612015-12-14T23:35:00.002-08:002015-12-14T23:35:49.336-08:00Old Master Results<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><img alt="maitre_dreux-bude_arrestation-2.jpg" height="320" src="http://www.latribunedelart.com/local/cache-vignettes/L486xH800/maitre_dreux-bude_arrestation-2-364be.jpg" style="background-color: #efefef; border: none; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="194" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table>London's auctioneers put on a fine show last week: plenty of good pictures with mostly quite reasonable estimates. But results were disappointing. High levels unsold (about half the Christie's evening auction), and no really spectacular prices. There seemed to be less trade buying than usual, and dealers declining to add to their stock is a bad sign. The day sales did a little better, but prices are still astoundingly low compared to contemporary art, and unprecedented relative to the immense resources of the wealthy global elite. The large number of unsold pictures indicates that prices are 'sticky downwards', as economists say: sellers are reluctant to crystallise losses relative to their expectations, so they decline to sell. It implies market weakness, but the inherent volatility of the art market makes the signal hard to read. We must also be cautious of drawing conclusions too hastily from a small sample of lots sold in a single week, although it really only confirms long-standing trends.<br /><br />The high-end market is sewn up by Christie's and Sotheby's, and usually reported as a messianic struggle between them. But reporters are measuring the wrong thing when they compare value of sales, a metric chosen because it's easily available and easily understood rather than because it's actually important or meaningful. If you're selling pictures, you want to know which auctioneer will get the higher price, and it's not clear to me that either has a clear edge. Knowing how much they've sold for other people doesn't answer that question. If you're a shareholder, you want to know about risk-adjusted return. Sale volume doesn't help that analysis: you need to know the commission charged and guarantees granted. And mere observers like me would be happy if either of them could just make navigating their websites easier than bitcoin mining.<br /><br />On the face of it Christie's sale was a disaster. But it really comes down to a handful of pictures. Their top lot, Hoffmann's&nbsp;<i>Hare&nbsp;</i>didn't sell, despite being one of the best things offered in London in recent years. Maybe private equity magnates think hanging a fluffy bunny on their wall would convey the wrong message.&nbsp;When I first saw it I thought the estimate would be £3m-£5m, but it was actually pitched at a slightly more aggressive £4m-£6m. Given its appeal, I didn't think that unreasonable, and it was quite plausible that a couple of interested collectors could have pushed it well beyond that. A small Claude drawing&nbsp;<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/claude-gellee-called-claude-lorrain-a-wooded-5649843-details.aspx">sold&nbsp;</a>recently&nbsp;for just shy of the Hoffmann low estimate, after all. Sotheby's top lot, a Constable that didn't inspire me, sold to a single bidder at its reserve. If that buyer had gone for the Hoffmann at Christie's, it would have looked very different.<br /><br />We don't know the economics of either auction, particularly how much commission they earned (assume&nbsp;<i>negative&nbsp;</i>seller's commission). The other expensive lot at Christie's was withdrawn; surprisingly, it was consigned by Christie's itself, having taken ownership when it failed to meet its guaranteed price a few years ago. It was sold privately, I'm told above its high estimate. That would also have boosted their total significantly. It ought also to boost profits too, as it would have been taken to inventory at the lower of estimated realisable value and purchase price. I'd say a prudent accounting treatment would be to discount by at least 20%, causing a big loss then but a decent profit now.<br /><br />A few other observations:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><ul><li>Vive la France! The Louvre made a great purchase of the Master of the Dreux Budé Triptych's&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.5.htmlhttp://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.5.html">Arrest of Christ</a>&nbsp;</i>for £965k (pictured above). It's a good and unusual picture that would complement any of the great collections of northern renaissance painting. Well done them for getting it directly from auction. Another fine French museum acquisition was Cabanal's&nbsp;<i>Portrait of an Artist&nbsp;</i>from the Winter Collection sale, for just £6,250. There are plenty of opportunities for good but cheap pictures that museums could be buying, but it's rare for them to do so. Do watch&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.latribunedelart.com/">La Tribune de l'Art</a>&nbsp;</i>for the most thorough coverage of museum acquisitions, including the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.latribunedelart.com/un-portrait-d-artiste-par-cabanel-achete-par-montpellier-a-londres">Cabanal</a>.</li><li>Things I got right: of the pictures I thought looked cheap, the Moillon doubled estimate,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.31.html">Flinck,&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.36.html">Mignon</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.17.html">Bachiacca&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/pietro-testa-il-lucchesino-aeneas-and-the-5958406-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958406&amp;sid=f5944e10-230d-4291-9988-eb684b63b56f">Testa&nbsp;</a>all exceeded estimate (even before premium).&nbsp;Two early Italian pictures I thought seemed cheap sold for approximately&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-day-sale-l15037/lot.149.html">double&nbsp;</a>and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.11.html">triple&nbsp;</a>their respective estimates.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>The pictures I thought expensive mostly did poorly, which wasn't my expectation. The Constable scraped its reserve with one bid, view pictures and the Bosschaert still life did poorly, and the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.8.html">Henry VIII</a>&nbsp;sold below low estimate. Tudor portraits have been madly expensive recently; historically interesting, but artistically dull.&nbsp;</li><li>Things I got wrong: the Cariani was a bargain at its low estimate (£100k, £125k with premium), though dark pictures of Christ with the Cross are not the most 'commercial'.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/giovanni-battista-gaulli-il-baciccio-christ-in-5958497-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958497&amp;sid=04bd5938-edd0-4f72-b91c-fd012faa4f44">Baciccio&nbsp;</a>made its high estimate (£35k with premium), but I still say it&nbsp;was cheap at that price.&nbsp;Mr Market didn't share my fondness for the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-day-sale-l15037/lot.150.html">early Cologne picture</a>&nbsp;that made just £50k. I was surprised the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.35.html">Verspronck&nbsp;</a>didn't sell; I thought it might exceed the estimate. His portraits are not rare, but this was a good one (though not in perfect condition).&nbsp;<i>The Standard Bearer&nbsp;</i>by Verspronck made&nbsp;<a href="http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/asi/lots/2522083">$1.5m in 1998</a>, and is now in the National Gallery, Washington. This one wasn't nearly as spectacularly swashbuckling, but similar order of quality.</li><li>So I was more right than wrong. I'm a genius, right? Well, alas no. Estimates aren't really predictions. Some pictures are estimated low to encourage interest (and tease us). Some are estimated 'robustly' to signal their importance (e.g. Hoffmann). And others are estimated high because the seller has demanded a high reserve. The auction house has marginal costs that aren't fully recovered from cataloguing fees, and they don't want too many unsold lots. But against that, they want to ensure their sales have a reasonable balance and low marginal costs make it worthwhile to take a punt if there's even a small chance of selling. There might also be opportunities for commission from private sale after the auction, and including some lots with high reserves might facilitate other consignments from the same seller. Sometimes unsold lots are no surprise to anyone, even the auctioneers. But that doesn't mean they're acting irrationally.&nbsp;</li></ul>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-49338596241782132902015-12-07T01:28:00.000-08:002015-12-07T01:28:40.081-08:00Old Master Auctions<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="A hare among plants " src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d59583/hans_hoffmann_a_hare_among_plants_d5958390h.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Christie's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">It's the week of the winter old master sales in London, and Sotheby's and Christie's have some great pictures for sale just in time for Christmas.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Best of all is surely this wonderful hare, at once stunningly beautiful, marvelously endearing, and art historically important. It's painted on vellum by Hans Hoffmann, who was clearly inspired by Dürer, but working a generation after his death. It's bigger than you'd imagine, combining a meticulous miniature technique with impactful presence at a distance. It's being sold at Christie's on Tuesday with an estimate of £4m-£6m. It's a prudent estimate, but given its potential appeal outside traditional old master collectors, and the tendency for some old master drawing collectors to pay enormous prices for the very best works, it could conceivably soar above that. You can<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/hans-hoffmann-a-hare-among-plants-5958390-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958390&amp;sid=352060ea-b2d1-4ebb-a8c3-8a59e7f1fdf1"> zoom in on the detail</a> on Christie's website.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Hoffmann is the top lot at Christie's, but many of my favourite pictures weren't actually the most expensive. A newly-discovered bouquet of flowers by <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.36.html">Abraham Mignon</a> at Sotheby's estimated at £200k-£300k is beautifully preserved and ranks as one of the finest Dutch flower pictures I've seen at auction, but he is less appreciated than Bosschaert or Huysum, and Mr Art Market can remember only so many names at one time.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Some pictures sell cheaply because the market just doesn't appreciate them. Others seem just to have particularly conservative estimates. Here are some things that look cheap to me:&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Apricots in a ceramic bowl, with plums on a stone ledge " src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d59584/louise_moillon_apricots_in_a_ceramic_bowl_with_plums_on_a_stone_ledge_d5958439h.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Christie's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">Louise Moillon is a wonderful still life artist, absent from many major museums. Christie's has this lovely <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/louise-moillon-apricots-in-a-ceramic-bowl-5958439-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958439&amp;sid=04bd5938-edd0-4f72-b91c-fd012faa4f44">still life of apricots</a> estimated at £70k - £100k. Its panel is badly warped, and there are paint losses along the cracks. But fundamentally it looks in rather good condition, and hasn't suffered the overcleaning endemic to seventeenth century still life. It needs careful restoration, but a bargain at that price.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="main-image hidden-phone lot lot-image overlay-trigger copyright" data-fullpage-overlay="true" height="271" src="http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L15/L15036/205L15036_8QDL7.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #353530; display: block; font-family: Benton, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 670px; max-width: 940px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="text-align: justify;">This Cariani <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.19.html">Christ Carrying the Cross</a></i> is a new discovery, and is unusually good for the artist. The estimate is just £70k-£100k at Sotheby's; it made a powerful impression at the viewing, and I suspect it will sell rather higher. It's a really moving image that wouldn't look out of place in a major museum, but it's perhaps not the most 'commercial' subject.&nbsp;</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="main-image hidden-phone lot lot-image overlay-trigger copyright" data-fullpage-overlay="true" height="320" src="http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L15/L15036/092L15036_8RTJB.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #353530; display: block; font-family: Benton, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 670px; max-width: 940px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="232" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">A more immediately attractive Italian picture, also at Sotheby's, is this wonderful <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.17.html">Bachiacca</a>, which is also notably well-preserved. Its estimate of £150k-£200k is rather than than the inflation-adjusted £16k that Agnew's paid for it in 1965 (around £277k today). Do zoom in on the Sotheby's website to get a better view of the details. Second-tier Italian artists like Bachiacca seem really undervalued to me, especially compared to Dutch pictures.&nbsp;</span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Christ in Glory, in a painted oval " src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d59584/giovanni_battista_gaulli_il_baciccio_christ_in_glory_in_a_painted_oval_d5958497h.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Christie's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Christie's has this <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/giovanni-battista-gaulli-il-baciccio-christ-in-5958497-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958497&amp;sid=04bd5938-edd0-4f72-b91c-fd012faa4f44">Christ in Glory</a> </i>by Il Baciccio estimated at just £20k-£30k. Justice demands ten times as much; it looked spectacular at the viewing, though harder to appreciate in reproduction.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Among the array of gold-ground pictures, it was two cheaper panels that particularly appealed to me. Sotheby's has Cola di Petruccioli da Orvieto's&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.11.html">Madonna and Child Enthroned</a>&nbsp;</i>estimated at&nbsp;£60k-£80k and Giovanni da Modena's <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-day-sale-l15037/lot.149.html">St Sebastian</a>&nbsp;</i>(£15k-£20k).&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="main-image hidden-phone lot lot-image overlay-trigger copyright" data-fullpage-overlay="true" height="320" src="http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L15/L15037/013L15037_8NKDK.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #353530; display: block; font-family: Benton, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 670px; max-width: 940px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="169" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>I greatly liked this anonymous <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-day-sale-l15037/lot.150.html">Adoration of the Magi</a> </i>from Cologne, c.1450. This kind of picture rarely appears on the market, and it's high-quality despite its anonymity. Good value at its £50k-£80k estimate, at Sotheby's. Unusually it has been restituted twice. It was confiscated from a member of the Thyssen family, and returned after World War II. But now it's been returned to the heir of the owner <i>before </i>Thyssen, who presumably sold under duress. It's the sort of picture that regional British museums should pursue, instead of buying more overpriced Constables and Gainsboroughs.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><br /></div><div>Among the Dutch pictures, this powerful portrait by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.35.html">Verspronck</a>&nbsp;really stands out. He was a variable artist, but this is a particularly good example, despite some wear. The estimate of £100k-£200k is in line with his more pedestrian work; this deserves to sell for more. The other striking Dutch picture is a Govaert Flinck&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.31.html">Tronie of a Young Woman</a></i>, estimated at £200k-£300k. The market for Dutch pictures has been moderating recently, after years of strength, but this fine and immediately attractive picture is the sort of thing that might sell very highly. Both are at Sotheby's.&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="A tulip, a Snakeshead, a Love-in-a-mist, a double variegated columbine, a Dog Rose, a Maiden’s Blush Rose, lilies of the valley and a pansy in a pot with a garden tiger moth, a shell, and a caterpillar on a ledge, a butterfly above " src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d59583/jacques_de_gheyn_ii_a_tulip_a_snakeshead_a_love-in-a-mist_a_double_var_d5958389h.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Christie's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>Jan Wijnants isn't a particularly exciting artist, a Dutch landscapist less inventive and less brilliant than the bigger names. But Christie's has a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/jan-wijnants-a-wooded-river-landscape-with-5958445-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958445&amp;sid=04bd5938-edd0-4f72-b91c-fd012faa4f44">delightful one</a>&nbsp;on a very small scale at just £7k-£10k. Looking beyond the name you can find some exceptionally good value pictures in the day sales. Dutch flower still lifes are highly valued, but collectors tend to pursue the biggest names. Bosschaert is especially prized, and Christie's has one estimated at £600k-£800k. Estimate is reasonable and in line with comparable pictures, but it's no bargain at that level. More interesting to me is the picture hanging opposite at the viewing: a rare flower piece by Jacques de Gheyn II estimated at £100k-£150k (above).&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="main-image hidden-phone lot lot-image overlay-trigger copyright" data-fullpage-overlay="true" height="320" src="http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb/lots/L15/L15036/4211M09_6QRF9_Redo_For_Web.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #353530; display: block; font-family: Benton, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; height: auto; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px auto; max-height: 670px; max-width: 940px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" width="220" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div>For some things to seem relatively cheap, others must be expensive. Sotheby's top lot is a big <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.44.html">Contstable </a>estimated at £8m-£12m. I'm not a great fan of Constable, and that price can buy you many better pictures. Buy the wonderful <a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.6.html">Mabuse </a>instead, which I neglected to mention only because its worth is already reflected in the £4m-£6m estimate (pictured above). The market for Brueghel and Cranach has moderated, but second-rate pictures still attract high estimates. I have a suspicion that the Holbein school <i><a href="http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/old-master-british-paintings-evening-sale-l15036/lot.8.html">Portrait of Henry VIII</a> </i>at Sotheby's will sell for more that its estimated £800k-£1.2m, but despite being a relatively good studio work it still seems too much to me. Iconic image of Britain's favourite psychopath, but not an inspiring picture. And view scenes always seem absurdly expensive to me: pretty and decorative, but rarely really good. Christie's has a really superior <a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/francesco-guardi-the-island-of-san-giorgio-5958421-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958421&amp;sid=f5944e10-230d-4291-9988-eb684b63b56f">Guardi</a>, but still doesn't seem worth £1.5m-£2.5m to me (though people with actual money will disagree, and it's their votes that count!).&nbsp;</div></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl presenting the Golden Bough to Charon " src="http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d59584/pietro_testa_il_lucchesino_aeneas_and_the_cumaean_sibyl_presenting_the_d5958406h.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Christie's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;">Poussin is one of my very favourite artists, but to my surprise his <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/nicolas-poussin-the-holy-family-with-the-5958405-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958405&amp;sid=352060ea-b2d1-4ebb-a8c3-8a59e7f1fdf1">Holy Family with the Infant St John the Baptist</a> </i>was one of my least favourite picture at Christie's. It's an early work, before he developed the austere classical style that's his hallmark. And it's not in great condition; selective cleaning has altered contrasts, and tonal variation has been lost. Not worth £400k-£600k, in my view; better off with the big Pietro Testa <i><a href="http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/pietro-testa-il-lucchesino-aeneas-and-the-5958406-details.aspx?from=salesummary&amp;intObjectID=5958406&amp;sid=f5944e10-230d-4291-9988-eb684b63b56f">Aeneas and the Cumaean Sibyl presenting the Golden Bough to Charon</a></i>, the next lot in the Christie's sale, estimated at £300k-£500k. It's over two meters wide, but a really fine picture (above).&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;">The viewings are always a revelation, a display of privately owned pictures that you wouldn't otherwise get to see. It surprises me that more people don't attend; they are free and open to everyone, but it seems to be a preponderance of dealers and collectors rather than art historians or the merely curious.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">They've typically been less well-studied than museum pictures, and I welcome the chance to form a view relatively unclouded by the dense heritage of scholarly opinions expressed on museums' pictures. It's also a way to develop a feel for condition, which is less apparent in museums that restore to a common standard. In the auction rooms you can see pictures in a range of states: battered and broken, overcleaned, repainted, cracked or torn, but sometimes marvelously pristine beneath dirty varnish. This season's sales had a lot of things especially to my taste, and there are many more wonderful pictures. Do have a look at the catalogues for the Master of St Ursula, Ambrosius Benson, a fascinating picture from the workshop of Joos van Cleve that was updated in a more modern style, a newly discovered (sadly worn) Spranger, a wild mannerist picture by Mirabello Cavallori, the Master of the Dreux Budé Triptych (possibly the earliest noctural panel painting), Ligozzi, Gandolfi and excellent pictures by Herri met de Bles and Hans Rottenhammer.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-53581481214888691562015-12-03T23:36:00.000-08:002015-12-03T23:36:38.678-08:00'Saving' treasures<div style="text-align: justify;">Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar has written an <a href="http://www.artfund.org/news/2015/12/03/rembrandt-the-campaign-that-never-was">intemperate </a>article about Britain's export controls, in the context of the <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/how-not-to-buy-rembrandt.html">sale of the Penrhyn Rembrandt</a>. Bendor Grosvenor has written a considered <a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3696_How_should_we_save_our_national_treasures">response </a>(naturally my choice of adjectives reflects my position in the debate!). I'd put a slightly different emphasis on the debate, so here are my thoughts:&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>Prohibiting export of works of art is an arbitrary confiscation of private property. A picture that can only be sold in one country is worth less than one on the global market. Spanish law effectively confiscates pictures as soon as they arrive on their shores. It's bizarre policy to punish people for buying art. You can still believe in punitive tax on gifts and inheritance, and taxing the rich until the pips squeak, You can still disbelieve in the merits of private property. But punitively confiscating wealth if it's in the form of art is utterly bizarre.</li><li>I disagree with Bendor Grosvenor that the works of art that have been saved are those that objectively are most cherished by the nation. I think donors place a lot of belief in the expert assessments of works that must be saved. And I don't think they always make the right choices. Personally I'd take the Le Brun, which was let out without a squeak, over the Van Dyck. And I wholeheartedly agree with the museum director who told Bendor that the Penrhyn Rembrandt isn't the best in the country. Apparently the Art Fund has never failed in its appeals, which means they're probably taking too few risks.&nbsp;</li><li>There really are some things that it's in the national interest to save because they are so strongly connected to the country. I'm not convinced that applies to everything that is export-blocked, and I don't think there is such a strong case for trying to save things simply because they are especially important. In any case, the really good things are usually the ones that get away because we can't afford them. I agree with Bendor that the answer is funding, not export controls.&nbsp;</li><li>Stephen Deuchar completely misses the point of what the Art Fund <i>ought </i>to be doing: helping to pay for really good museum acquisitions. Limiting it to 'saving' the stuff that happens to be in the UK is needlessly limiting. Pictures that can be exported are worth more because they can be sold to a global market. The other side of that is that we can buy better things if we look around the world for the best acquisitions, rather than trying to 'save' things that happen already to be here, deferring to the historic judgment of British collectors.&nbsp;</li><li>Here are some ideas from me on <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/dear-museums-buy-this.html">what to buy</a>. And now I'm off to see the Gentileschi at Sotheby's.&nbsp;</li></ul>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-78418911704330990962015-11-29T15:17:00.002-08:002015-11-30T06:40:59.362-08:00Recent reading<div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qdymzm2SL._SX396_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="320" width="255" /></div><br /><br />Jan Royt&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Master-Trebon-Altarpiece-Jan-Royt/dp/8024622610/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1447049940&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=master+trebon">The Master of the Trebon Altarpiece</a>&nbsp;</i>Carolinum Press 2015 £31.50<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This is a book and an artist worthy of more attention. The artist's work is almost all in Prague, and the book was published by Charles University and seems not to have been widely reviewed. But the pictures are amazing, as you'll appreciate from the book's high-quality plates. The solidly academic text explains multiple contexts for the Trebon Master and discusses his known works. Its style is a little formal, and I thought it could benefit from the structure of a traditional catalogue raisonné, rather than an analytic monograph. As it is, parts of the text read like catalogue entries pasted together. But the quality of analysis is high, and the book is worth getting for the pictures alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Frank McLynn&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Genghis-Khan-Man-Conquered-World/dp/0224072900/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1448838459&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=genghis+khan">Genghis Khan: The man who conquered the world</a>&nbsp;</i>Bodley Head 2015 £25</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This enjoyable popular history narrates the astonishing rise of the Mongols, who went from being central Asian subsistence nomads to conquerors of most of the known world, from China to eastern Europe. McLynn focuses on the great military campaigns which are both the most salient aspect of Genghis Khan's reign, and the best documented. But he ranges widely, discussing administrative practice and religious beliefs, which seem to have been rather new-age ecumenical. He leaves grand speculation on the causes of the Mongol hegemony to the last chapter, which I found least satisfactory and overly hasty in downplaying environmental factors. But although I learned a lot from the book, I was frustrated that the narrative pace trumped historical scruples.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sources on the Mongols are partial, biased and ancient. Reportage and myth are entwined. McLynn is a popular historian trying to tell a good story, so he doesn't pay enough attention to uncertainty. It struck me when he wrote definitively about the Mongol's skill as warriors, including the ability to time their shot at the exact moment when the horse's feet are all off the ground (p.130). But people didn't even know that horses even raised all their feet off the ground at once until Muybridge's photographs. Makes me wonder about the other claims, including the remarkably precise report of the archer who shot a bow 550 yards in a contest in 1225. He suggests that despotism is against Buddhist creed (p. 143); he should read Brian Daizen Victoria's&nbsp;<i>Zen at War.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">McLynn has a peculiar fascination with alcohol. Massive piss-ups are a staple of ancient culture, and hardly confined to the Mongols (though the shift to higher-alcohol wine was a shock to their system). But for McLynn it's an opportunity for wild speculation: "As a student of human nature, [Genghis Khan] knew that a ban or prohibition would be a pointless gesture which would not work, so he tried to moderate the problem by decreeing that none of his subjects should get drunk more than three times a month" (p.158). Remarkable that he was so much smarter than our current rulers, but of course it's an evidence-free assertion. Later McLynn writes that "Severe alcoholism was the major reason for the short lifespans of the great Mongol khans and aristocrats" (p. 363). That's an absurd assumption that tells us more about the author's preoccupation with a fashionable cause of our own times than about the health of thirteenth century warrior elites.<br /><br />Academic and popular history are needlessly far apart. Often academics are to blame for bad writing and an excessive preoccupation with their peers rather than their sources, and also for a sometimes snooty disdain for history written by non-academic historians. But often the fault is with popular historians who are cavalier with evidence and think that telling a good story is sufficient. This book has many merits, and its daft speculative moments damage its credibility.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rachel Laudan&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuisine-Empire-Cooking-History-California/dp/0520286316/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1448838309&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=cuisine+empire">Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in world history</a>&nbsp;</i>University of California Press 2015 £19.95</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Satisfying big history packed with delicious morsels, taking us from prehistory to the present day. Love the old warnings against vegetables, and the Soviet caution against drinking too much water. Laudan is a smart cookie who keeps a sense of narrative sweep holding together the details. For much of history innovation was limited to elite food; everyone else was stuck with dull staples. ‘Middling cuisine’ arose late, giving us all better and more varied options. She is cautious of the moralistic critique of diet, rightly celebrating our great success in providing such rich and varied food for all.&nbsp;<u></u><u></u></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bernd Roeck&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Florence-1900-Quest-Arcadia-Search/dp/0300095155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1448837823&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=florence+1900">Florence 1900: The quest for arcadia&nbsp;</a></i>Yale University Press 2009 £25<u></u></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The years from about 1890 to 1914 are some of the most fascinating in human history, a time of change that eclipses our own supposedly unprecedented dynamism. It was a time of rapid urbanisation, and cities like Vienna, London, Paris and New York led the charge. This book can be read as a fascinating oblique take on these changes, writing about a city that even in 1900 was becoming a tourist shrine, despite rapid growth. Roeck focuses on expatriate communities, the Germans and English who made Florence their home. It's remarkable to read about the extent of destruction in central Florence at this late date, and of plans for even more thorough-going redevelopment. I enjoyed it less than I expected; its tone is a little dry, and much of the material about expats was familiar to me from other sources. But weaves together a magnificent kaleidoscope; how wonderful it must have been as part of that cultural circle. &nbsp;<u></u></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Frank E. Zimring&nbsp;<i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/City-That-Became-Safe-Lessons/dp/0199324166/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1448837681&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=zimring+city">The City that became safe: New York's lessons for urban crime and its control&nbsp;</a></i>Oxford University Press<i>&nbsp;</i>2013 £13.49<u></u></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Crime rates have collapsed across the western world. It's one of the most amazing social developments, yet good news stories prompt less discussion than bad. The rapid rise in crime from the 1960s prompted an industry of hand-wringing and competing explanations powered by different biases and ideologies. It's fascinating on many levels, and deserves much more attention; I'm always glad to find smart books addressing the question.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">New York's crime statistics led the way up and down, and Zimring's book tries to explain it. I hadn't appreciated just how dramatically crime fell in NYC (99% decline in auto crime, for example). And some of the common explanations, like zero-tolerance, are less important than is commonly believed. Unfortunately the dearth of studies at the time means that data aren't available to test some hypotheses. But just as those in charge were blamed for rising crime rates, so those in charge more recently are credited with bringing about decline, and we accept their explanations too readily. Impressive book, and the lack of definitive answers is a failing of the data not the author.</span></div></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-4386890151957102015-11-15T23:27:00.002-08:002015-11-15T23:27:27.535-08:00National Trust gets it right at Basildon Park<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="239" 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" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Wikipedia</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">This weekend I went to <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/basildon-park">Basildon Park</a>. Some of you will know it as home to Victorian art collector James Morrison, who owned a couple of Poussin's best pictures, plus Rubens, Claude, Rembrandt and modern British pictures, which in his day meant Constable and Turner. Others will know its interiors from Downton Abbey, where it was used as the family's London house. Basildon has been cruelly abused, and had to be substantially re-made in the 1950s. It's not entirely clear from the guidebook which bits are new, but I thought the plasterwork in the entrance hall a heavy-handed caricature of Adam's delicate neoclassicism. It's not clear if it was a heavy-handed eighteenth century plasterer, or modern work. The house is still a delight, and it has some wonderful things, including eight apostles by Pompeo Batoni.&nbsp;</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-01OKZco2eeo/VkmDFRoYgKI/AAAAAAAAbJA/UorQ-vJ66Qs/s640-Ic42/IMG_2048.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: MS</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">I went particularly to see an exhibition of pictures from the late Brinsley Ford's collection. I have a two volume catalogue of his collection published by the Walpole Society. He owned a superb Michelangelo drawing that was sold a few years ago, and a magnificent Subleyras that is now a highlight of the eighteenth century French room at the National Gallery. But his house was also crammed with 'minor' works, including modern British and pictures related to the Grand Tour, which was a particular interest of Ford's. Basildon is an ideal venue to show the collection, and the display is perfect. It includes fabulous portraits by Batoni and Mengs, a famous drawing of a temporary ballroom attributed to Adam (more likely by an assistant who was actually a better draughtsman), drawings by Tiepolo and a wonderful big caricature of grand tourists by Patch.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I like the dense hang, and it convincingly recreates the feel of Ford's own house, as seen in the Walpole Society volumes. A couple of the pictures are masterpieces, but I enjoyed the mix of more minor works, too. The NT wanted the light off; I don't know why the are so attached to darkness. The room guide sensibly used her initiative on a dull day and turned it on so we could actually see the pictures. Unfortunately they're not allowed to sell catalogues in the house (do they think the guides will defraud them?), so you have to remember to go into the shop before entering the house. But it's only a fiver, and it's very good, summarising the entries from the Walpole catalogue. Good art, good display, good catalogue. The NT has done everything right this time.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Basildon exhibition will be in place for at least five years, so do try to see it. It's an easy day trip from London. It shows the excellent things still done by the National Trust, despite the best efforts of&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3350_What's_wrong_with_the_National_Trust_(ctd.)">Dame Beanbag</a>. Speaking of which, I got a response from the NT following my gripe about <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/why-is-national-trust-hiding-our.html">Kedleston</a>. The response went from the house manager to the regional manager to the head office, but of course I wasn't given any contact details other than head office. Despite drafting so many layers of management, the response could have been written by a computer, and the needless levels of bureaucracy and oversight are an ominous sign of mismanagement. Especially concerning to me is the delegation of accountability. Silly stunts like the Kedleston party have been encouraged from the very top. But they present it as a purely local decision for which they have no central accountability—except, of course, to coordinate and vet the responses to make sure they are written in the blandest possible corporatese.&nbsp;</div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-89976196885244828502015-11-09T10:19:00.000-08:002015-11-09T10:19:10.852-08:00What happens without guards...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wa5KCFGpBcs/VkDhbvK4zzI/AAAAAAAAbH8/bzEzoIWukJE/s640-Ic42/IMG_2013.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: MS</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">It looks like some one has run their fingers across this frame at the National Gallery, breaking off a big chunk of gilding. I assume it happened quite recently, as the fragment is still there. There are quite a few other chips where the gesso is bright white, indicating that they could be recent. The picture, <i>Departure of the Argonauts </i>by the Master of 1487, is on loan from a private collector. It's in the same gallery as the celebrated Botticelli <i>Mars and Venus </i>and it's often packed, but the guards has to cover the room with the Leonardo as well, so it's usually unattended. Two renaissance cassoni are used as tripods for photos, and the gilding is noticeably worn in the middle.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cost cutting in museums imposes real costs, alas.</div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-10507018110560703202015-11-09T09:45:00.000-08:002015-11-09T09:45:09.988-08:00Exhibitions in London<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="192" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ff304b299dcdc3ff74a6b3da7d696a621de099c4/0_153_4096_2458/master/4096.jpg?w=620&amp;q=85&amp;auto=format&amp;sharp=10&amp;s=d5f1ad1f9ae492a31e225e5b64ba48c6" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Guardian</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">The only current exhibition that I'm inspired to review at length is the NG's <i>Botticini's Palmieri Altarpiece</i>, to follow. In the meantime, some thoughts on 'the rest'.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/goya-portraits">Goya: The Portraits</a> National Gallery to January 16<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Another rather formulaic idea for a guaranteed 'blockbuster': assemble pictures by the same famous artist around a particular theme and wait for the crowds. I haven’t even bought the catalogue, because recent offerings have been so feeble and yet again there’s no actual catalogue. You have to be really dedicated to see an NG blockbuster, because it’s just never quiet. Even at opening time the galleries are mobbed by people who’ve been at private views. The picture above is cruelly tempting: imagine twenty people between the bench and the pictures and you'll get a better idea. It’s interesting how much difference it makes. I recall the <i>Family of the Infanta Don Luis</i>&nbsp;when it was on extended loan at the NG some years ago, and it made a terrific impression on me. Seeing it behind thirty people deadened it. No point.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was interested in the critical response. Fawning adulation from all the right-on critics in the main newspapers, but some intelligent criticism from <a href="https://neiljeffares.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/solo-goya/">Neil Jeffares</a>. But must one be a great painter to be a great artist? I'm not so sure. Goya certainly had his weaknesses; just look at all those superficial hands. And some of the pictures in this show are absolute dogs. But others are, to me, quite wonderful. In the last room there are some especially feeble late works, but you can compare them to the superb <i><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/30.95.242">Don Tiburcio</a> </i>(and look how cunningly he hides the hands!). I actually like many of the pictures a good deal, but we should take his critics seriously, and acknowledge his flaws. Indeed, a show focused on what's good and what's bad in Goya would have been much more interesting.<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/ai-weiwei">Ai Weiwei </a>Royal Academy to 13 December<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wow, this is bad. This splendid <i><a href="http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/08/ai-weiwei-the-perfect-asian-artist-for-lazy-western-curators/">Spectator </a></i>article put it better than I could. But even people who recognise the art as execrable fawn over his politics. Actually Weiwei’s politics are as limp as his art. Banal, obvious and (from a western perspective) utterly safe.&nbsp;<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/jean-etienne-liotard">Jean-Etienne Liotard</a> Royal Academy to 31 January<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Royal Academy puts on some of the best shows in London in its tiny little top floor galleries, whereas its grand blockbusters in the big rooms on the main floor are usually duds. The catalogue for Liotard is excellent, and I'd love to have written about the exhibition. I needed to see it a second time, and took a day off work to get there first thing and enjoy it quietly for a good block of time, but I was turned away at the door because my Friends card had expired and they haven't yet sent me a new one. I don't have many days off work, and to have wasted one of them because of such a stupidly bureaucratic response is utterly infuriating. It looks wonderful, so I hope you have more luck than me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u></u>&nbsp;<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PRAtdr_RU50/VkDYSfqzmNI/AAAAAAAAbHs/FnuSEW-zWDM/s1600/IMG_1885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PRAtdr_RU50/VkDYSfqzmNI/AAAAAAAAbHs/FnuSEW-zWDM/s320/IMG_1885.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: MS</span></td></tr></tbody></table><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.katz.co.uk/Daniel-Katz-Exhibition-List-DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=46">Thirty Years an Obsession: A Private Collection Uncovered</a> Daniel Katz Gallery to 18 December<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Best thing I’ve seen in London. Really excellent and rarely-seen things, including a stunning Lelio Orsi and a Bernard van Orley (above) that I’ve coveted since seeing it in an auction catalogue about two decades ago. I didn’t know it would be in the show, and it was a wonderful surprise to see it. &nbsp;A couple of superior Cranachs and a Spranger that I’d seen in New York were the other highlights for me, but there was a strong group of nineteenth century pictures too. I enjoyed this more than most of the big exhibitions. Really worth a look if you get the chance.<u></u><u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/drawing_in_silver_and_gold.aspx">Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns</a> British Museum to 6 December&nbsp;<u></u></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bringing together drawings from wildly different traditions simply because they use the same medium seemed a weak theme for an exhibition, but this show is convincing. Rather than attempt a comprehensive narrative, it is separated into four relatively self-contained and coherent sections: the Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Dutch mannerism (stretching to other northern seventeenth century sheets), and the twentieth century. There are some sublime masterpieces here, and the connections and distinctions are revealing. The twentieth century section lacks the peaks of the other sections of the show, but there are still some fine drawings by artists that deserve to be better known.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The show is well organised and the wall text is excellent, but unfortunately the display in London had some serious drawbacks. The early Italian drawings were wrecked by the reflection from a video loop, imposing moving images among the Raphaels. There's really no excuse these days for having an Open University style film showing in the gallery, when it could be put on YouTube for people to consult at home. And some of the northern mannerists were invisible, because they were so far back in vitrines. It didn’t matter as much with the rest of the exhibition, but some of the mannerist sheets are minutely detailed and demand close study.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even if you can't see the exhibition, I really commend the excellent catalogue. I especially hope it's read at the National Gallery. The Liotard and Metalpoint catalogues are both models they should follow.</span></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-52319594432686025642015-11-01T23:14:00.000-08:002015-11-01T23:14:54.819-08:00Why is the National Trust hiding our pictures?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcNQtQlPnS4/VjcE0LIoNnI/AAAAAAAAbGk/Qi0Ap0k0EyU/s1600/Kedleston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mcNQtQlPnS4/VjcE0LIoNnI/AAAAAAAAbGk/Qi0Ap0k0EyU/s320/Kedleston.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Lynn Roberts</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">Recent trips to National Trust houses prompt me to add to Art History News's <a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3331_Whats_wrong_with_the_National_Trust">concerns </a>about this failing institution.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Last week I went to Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire with friends. It was seven hours of driving, and one of our party had traveled from the US, but worth it to see one of Adam's masterpieces, stuffed with fabulous furniture and baroque pictures. But the drawing room - one of the highlights - was in darkness. We couldn't see any of the pictures. The room has been set up to recreate the sense of an eighteenth century party. It fails on so many levels. It stops us seeing the things we had made great effort to visit. It patronises us by asking us to imagine a party at Kedleston, then assuming we're incapable of imagining and have to have the whole thing set up for us. And it fails because the execution is so feeble: a few wine glasses, electric lighting, and added spotlights on the gilt furniture for effect.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gxvdkT-f7po/VjcFW5xqz6I/AAAAAAAAbGw/VREjqoBZLfA/s1600/IMG_1958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gxvdkT-f7po/VjcFW5xqz6I/AAAAAAAAbGw/VREjqoBZLfA/s320/IMG_1958.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Tracy Emin would do a better job (and I never thought I'd say that). The National Trust panjandrums are using great houses as backdrop for their own art projects. I am just furious that we weren't allowed to see anything in the room because of this childish prank. And I'm embarrassed that my friend, who is a passionate connoisseur of the Italian baroque, will now likely never get to see the pictures.&nbsp;</span><span style="text-align: justify;">They threaten to extend this throughout the house:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dsd7ceGfxJg/VjcFp2xYgLI/AAAAAAAAbHA/kJ5fPooh-ME/s1600/IMG_1954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dsd7ceGfxJg/VjcFp2xYgLI/AAAAAAAAbHA/kJ5fPooh-ME/s320/IMG_1954.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">Adding to the sense that the National Trust doesn't care for the things in its trust is the dumbed-down guidebook. The original guidebook lists virtually all of the pictures. The new guidebook just mentions a couple in passing. In the library one pictures is listed, and we are told the theme of another (Diogenes), but they don't even give the artist (Asserto, according to the old guide I own). Stourhead, which I also visited recently, is even worse. It has one of the best picture collections of any National Trust house, and the old guidebook I own provided a separate handlist of all the pictures on display, and discussed some in detail in the main guidebook. The new one mentions just half a dozen paintings in the picture gallery, but speculates that the collector 'was especially moved by female distress', seemingly on the evidence of two pictures he bought. This kind of gossipy human interest speculation is typical; the older guide discussed his taste in the context of eighteenth century collecting and stylistic preferences that make historical sense.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As I child I don't remember ever going to an art gallery, but my parents did take me to National Trust houses. I was enthralled, and I used to devour the guidebooks. Learning about this 'stuff' set off a lifelong interest in art history. Now they think I should instead have been distracted with gimmicks. The new guidebooks give a fraction of the information in the old. And instead of encouraging children to enjoy the houses and look at their contents, they put toy animals in the rooms and ask kids to locate them. I'm all in favour of engaging children with activities, but couldn't they make the activity in some way relevant to the house? They can play finding games anywhere. Here's the cat that I found:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1fFPjxozCak/VjcMf9AtxkI/AAAAAAAAbHY/CvzLia4dJDc/s1600/IMG_1960.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1fFPjxozCak/VjcMf9AtxkI/AAAAAAAAbHY/CvzLia4dJDc/s320/IMG_1960.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Our visit also reminded me of all that is wonderful about National Trust houses. Kedleston really is one of the great neoclassical houses, with a vast entrance hall whose proportions work so much better than you'd imagine from pictures, its Roman austerity softened with alabaster pillars, leading through to a giant rotunda. Not everything works at Kedleston; the oddly reduced proportions of copied classical sculptures seem lost in the niches, and the functions of some rooms seem rather overwhelmed by the grandeur of their setting; modest bookcases are out of place in the library. But the collections are largely intact and so well-suited, the wonderful Linnell furniture and Italian pictures. Reminding us of the good work still done by the National Trust is a fine new acquisition, a delightful Carlo Dolci that was owned by the family until recently. For all its prejudice against 'stuff', they still acquire good things.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Vvwi610kjs/VjcFf6ra59I/AAAAAAAAbG4/qb02ZxT-7fM/s1600/IMG_1964.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Vvwi610kjs/VjcFf6ra59I/AAAAAAAAbG4/qb02ZxT-7fM/s320/IMG_1964.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-69477461729278463572015-10-25T03:32:00.001-07:002015-10-25T03:32:15.637-07:00Dear museums: buy this!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image of Does museum exposure increase the value of Old Masters?" height="228" src="http://www.arthistorynews.com/i/entries/3625.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture: Sotheby's</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">This Orazio Gentileschi is a supreme masterpiece. It's coming up for auction with an estimate of $25m - $35m. It's beautiful, art historically 'important' and a simply magnificent picture. I've known it from reproductions and I'd longed to see it, so I was delighted to see it on loan at the Met last time I visited. It surpassed most of the masterpieces in the permanent collection, a truly memorable and stupendous picture. So why aren't we buying it for the National Gallery?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Museums always talk about wanting to buy masterpieces rather than 'filling gaps', but they usually do exactly the opposite. The Met, the National Gallery in Washington and the Getty should be going all-out for this, but the Met seems more enthused for contemporary and the National Gallery in Washington has an absurdly myopic focus on buying only Dutch pictures. But what about Europe?&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It would be a great complement to the National Gallery's strong collection of baroque art, but it could equally transform a regional museum's collection - Birmingham would be a fine home, alongside another large Gentileschi and some other fine baroque pictures. It's a measure of the picture's importance and originality that it would complement even the Louvre's magnificent holdings, or the Prado's. German museums bought aggressively and well in the 1970s and 1980s, but little since; it would make up for some of the large baroque pictures that Berlin lost in a fire in 1945. But because it's not already in one of those countries, they're highly unlikely to pursue it. Why not sell the right to export another national treasure and use the funds to buy this instead?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'll be amazed if any of them are even considering it. Europe's cultural conservatism is so ingrained that even in collecting historic art it seeks to hold onto the stuff that hasn't already been exported rather than seek out the best, wherever it lies. But the UK's cultural class deserves special contempt in this unedifying contest, because they are still obsessing about an over-priced Rembrandt that they <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/how-not-to-buy-rembrandt.html">should let go</a>, instead of pursuing a great masterpiece that they should buy. The Rembrandt is £35m; the (better) Gentileschi is $35m. But The Art Fund is desperately trying to 'save' the Rembrandt (which seems likely to <a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3626_35m_Rembrandt_to_stay_in_the_UK">remain </a>here anyway), and seems not even to have noticed the Gentileschi.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One possibility, not to be dismissed lightly, is that the Art Fund is run by idiots. They seem more interested in marketing than in art, demanding that museums include prominent lurid acknowledgement of their support and following fashion in headlong pursuit of trendy contemporary art. Describing the Rembrandt as 'perilously unsafe' is absurd hyperbole that reveals their real focus: keeping stuff in the UK rather than developing our public art collections.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The other possibility is that they have just given up on the idea of developing collections and buying great works of art in favour of simply keeping in &nbsp;the UK whatever is already in the UK. The trope of 'saving our art' plays to the bias of loss-aversion, which as specialists in advertising rather than art they will understand well. But it's a sign of the stultifying monoculture of arts discussion here that it goes unchallenged. No one questions the absurdly distorted funding model, or makes the case for going out to buy art that is great rather than art that is here.&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Treasury is willing to <a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/donations-in-lieu-of-tax-stupid-way-to.html">subsidise </a>the purchase of pictures arbitrarily, simply because the owners happen to have some tax to pay. That's an irrational and expensive subsidy that should be abolished. And the fact that it also involves an added subsidy to the owners is despicable. Whatever your views on the UK government's welfare cuts, it's hard to adduce any plausible case for taxpayers making transfers to especially wealthy people just because they own good art. The real cost of the Rembrandt is £35m, not the reduced amount based on tax discount. The tax discount is just a payment from the Treasury. Better to use the money to buy the <i>Danae </i>instead, and have enough change left over to buy some other good pictures.&nbsp;</div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6454459186129750328.post-70572161590913964032015-10-25T03:32:00.000-07:002015-10-25T03:33:05.103-07:00Should museums borrow from dealers?<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The great<a href="http://grumpyarthistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/dear-museums-buy-this.html"> Gentileschi coming up for sale</a> has prompted a debate about the ethics of museums displaying loaned pictures that are 'for sale'.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/10/danae-downpour-metropolitan-museum-yale-university-shower-dealer-richard-feigen-with-gold.html" style="text-align: justify;">Lee Rosenbaum</a><span style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</span><span style="text-align: justify;">chose a poor example to criticise in the Gentileschi because it is such an exceptional picture, of unquestioned quality and significance. It's been owned by the dealer for decades and hung in his own dining room for most of that time, so describing it as from his 'private collection' rather than stock seems fair. That said, I think she describes a real problem.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.arthistorynews.com/articles/3625_Does_museum_exposure_increase_the_value_of_Old_Masters" style="text-align: justify;">Bendor Grosvenor</a><span style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</span><span style="text-align: justify;">goes too far the other way, in my view. I'm sure he's right that museums are no pushover for loans, and he agrees that it's unseemly to sell straight after exhibition. But I'm not sure that the quality of old masters is always so self-evident. The fact that dealers go to such lengths to establish the quality of what they're selling speaks to that - the experts consulted, and the often impressively scholarly and luxurious catalogues that they produce are all part of marketing their wares, explaining and justifying their assertion of its worth. The term 'museum quality' is used by dealers to convey value, but they would say that, wouldn't they? You can't argue with the claim if it's actually been shown at a museum.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm glad Feigen lent the&nbsp;<i>Danae</i>, and the Met was right to take it. But I've seen other loans that are less worthy, including things claimed as being from the 'private collection of [so-and-so-who-just-happens-to-be-a-dealer]. And I've heard from the author of a monograph on a certain artist that a work loaned by a dealer was exhibited as being by said artist, although the curator who borrowed it agreed with the author that it was no such thing. That provenance (on loan to major museum with dealer's preferred attribution) adds kudos, and even if it's not reflected directly in price it may make it easier to sell.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I think it comes down to a question of balance, and the debate between Lee Rosenbaum's and Bendor Grosvenor's positions is healthy. Museums should be worried about what people will say about the loans they accept from dealers, but they shouldn't automatically turn them down or impose onerous conditions either.</div>Michael Savagehttps://plus.google.com/116181384261153282847noreply@blogger.com0